Camrelizumab and apatinib plus induction chemotherapy and concurrent chemoradiotherapy in stage N3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a phase 2 clinical trial.

The antiangiogenic agent apatinib has been shown to clinically improve responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors in several cancer types. Patients with N3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma have a high risk of distant metastasis, however, if the addition of immunotherapy to standard treatment could improve efficacy is unclear. In this phase II clinical trial (ChiCTR2000032317), 49 patients with stage TanyN3M0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma were enrolled and received the combination of three cycles of induction chemotherapy, camrelizumab and apatinib followed by chemoradiotherapy. Here we report on the primary outcome of distant metastasis-free survival and secondary end points of objective response rate, failure-free survival, locoregional recurrence-free survival, overall survival and toxicity profile. After induction therapy, all patients had objective response, including 13 patients (26.5%) with complete response. After a median follow-up of 28.7 months, the primary endpoint of 1-year distant metastasis-free survival was met for the cohort (1-year DMFS rate: 98%). Grade≥3 toxicity appeared in 32 (65.3%) patients, with the most common being mucositis (14[28.6%]) and nausea/vomiting (9[18.4%]). In this work, camrelizumab and apatinib in combination with induction chemotherapy show promising distant metastasis control with acceptable safety profile in patients with stage TanyN3M0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Comparative study of the cervista and hybrid capture 2 methods in detecting high-risk human papillomavirus in cervical lesions.

High-risk human papillomavirus (HR HPV) testing is important for the follow-up of patients with cytological abnormalities. This study was undertaken to compare the clinical value of the Cervista and hybrid capture 2 (HC2) tests for detection of HR HPV in cervical lesions. Overall 439 cervical specimens with abnormal cytology and 22 normal cervical specimens were subjected to the Cervista and HC2 tests. HPV positivity and its predictive value for high-grade cervical lesions were assessed. The Cervista and HC2 tests showed comparable HR HPV detection rates in women with all cytological and histological diagnoses, with a positive and negative percent agreement of 90.8% and 64.5%, respectively. The two methods had a same sensitivity of 90% in detecting CIN II or greater cervical lesions, while the specificity for the Cervista test and HC2 assay was 47% and 43%, respectively. The positive rate for the Cervista assay probe set A9 increased with the histological severity, ranging from 25.0% in normal specimens to 69.5% in high-grade lesions. In conclusion, the clinical performance for the Cervista test is as excellent as the HC2 test in detecting HR HPV and predicting high-grade cervical lesions.