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.

Toripalimab plus capecitabine in the treatment of patients with residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a single-arm phase 2 trial.

Patients with residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma after receiving definitive treatment have poor prognoses. Although immune checkpoint therapies have achieved breakthroughs for treating recurrent and metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, none of these strategies have been assessed for treating residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In this single-arm, phase 2 trial, we aimed to evaluate the antitumor efficacy and safety of toripalimab (anti-PD1 antibody) plus capecitabine in patients with residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma after definitive treatment (ChiCTR1900023710). Primary endpoint of this trial was the objective response rate assessed according to RECIST (version 1.1). Secondary endpoints included complete response rate, disease control rate, duration of response, progression-free survival, safety profile, and treatment compliance. Between June 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021, 23 patients were recruited and received six cycles of toripalimab plus capecitabine every 3 weeks. In efficacy analyses, 13 patients (56.5%) had complete response, and 9 patients (39.1%) had partial response, with an objective response rate of 95.7% (95% CI 78.1-99.9). The trial met its prespecified primary endpoint. In safety analyses, 21 of (91.3%) 23 patients had treatment-related adverse events. The most frequently reported adverse event was hand-foot syndrome (11 patients [47.8%]). The most common grade 3 adverse event was hand-foot syndrome (two patients [8.7%]). No grades 4-5 treatment-related adverse events were recorded. This phase 2 trial shows that combining toripalimab with capecitabine has promising antitumour activity and a manageable safety profile for patients with residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

A deep learning-based semiautomated workflow for triaging follow-up MR scans in treated nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

It is imperative to optimally utilize virtues and obviate defects of fully automated analysis and expert knowledge in new paradigms of healthcare. We present a deep learning-based semiautomated workflow (RAINMAN) with 12,809 follow-up scans among 2,172 patients with treated nasopharyngeal carcinoma from three centers (ChiCTR.org.cn, Chi-CTR2200056595). A boost of diagnostic performance and reduced workload was observed in RAINMAN compared with the original manual interpretations (internal vs. external: sensitivity, 2.5% [p = 0.500] vs. 3.2% [p = 0.031]; specificity, 2.9% [p < 0.001] vs. 0.3% [p = 0.302]; workload reduction, 79.3% vs. 76.2%). The workflow also yielded a triaging performance of 83.6%, with increases of 1.5% in sensitivity (p = 1.000) and 0.6%-1.3% (all p < 0.05) in specificity compared to three radiologists in the reader study. The semiautomated workflow shows its unique superiority in reducing radiologist's workload by eliminating negative scans while retaining the diagnostic performance of radiologists.

Deep learning-based recurrence detector on magnetic resonance scans in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A multicenter study.

OBJECTIVES: Accuracy in the detection of recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) on follow-up magnetic resonance (MR) scans needs to be improved. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 5 035 follow-up MR scans from 5 035 survivors with treated NPC between April 2007 and July 2020 were retrospectively collected from three cancer centers for developing and evaluating the deep learning (DL) model MODERN (MR-based Deep learning model for dEtecting Recurrent Nasopharyngeal carcinoma). In a reader study with 220 scans, the accuracy of two radiologists in detecting recurrence on scans with vs without MODERN was evaluated. The performance was measured using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-AUC) and accuracy with a 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: MODERN exhibited sound performance in the validation cohort (internal: ROC-AUC, 0.88, 95% CI, 0.86-0.90; external 1: ROC-AUC, 0.88, 95% CI, 0.86-0.90; external 2: ROC-AUC, 0.85, 95% CI, 0.82-0.88). In a reader study, MODERN alone achieved reliable accuracy compared to that of radiologists (MODERN: 84.1%, 95% CI, 79.3%-88.9%; competent: 80.9%, 95% CI, 75.7%-86.1%, P < 0.001; expert: 85.9%, 95% CI, 81.3%-90.5%, P < 0.001). The accuracy of radiologists was boosted by the MODERN score (competent with MODERN score: 84.6%, 95% CI, 79.8%-89.3%, P < 0.001; expert with MODERN score: 87.7%, 95% CI, 83.4%-92.1%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: We developed a DL model for recurrence detection with reliable performance. Computer-human collaboration has the potential to refine the workflow in interpreting surveillant MR scans among patients with treated NPC.

Efficacy and safety of sintilimab plus bevacizumab in metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy: an open-label phase 2 study.

Background: There are limited treatment options for patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (mNPC) after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy. In this trial, we assessed the efficacy and safety of sintilimab plus bevacizumab in patients with mNPC where platinum-based chemotherapy has been ineffective. Methods: This was a single-centre, open-label, single-arm, phase 2 trial in Guangzhou, China for patients with mNPC progressed after at least one line of systemic therapy. Eligible patients were between 18 and 75 years old, were histologically confirmed differentiated or undifferentiated non-keratinized NPC, were ineffective after platinum-based chemotherapy, and they had at least one measurable metastatic lesion assessed with Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors Version 1.1 (RECIST V.1.1) by investigators and unsuitable for local surgery or radiotherapy. Key exclusion criterion was previous treatment with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies plus anti-VEGF antibodies and high risk of hemorrhage or nasopharyngeal necrosis. Patients were enrolled and received sintilimab (200 mg) plus bevacizumab (7.5 mg/kg) intravenously every 3 weeks. Intention-to-treat population was included in primary endpoint analyses and safety analyses. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) assessed by investigators following the guidelines of RECIST V1.1. Key secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), duration of response (DOR), and safety. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04872582). Findings: Between July 29, 2021 and August 16, 2022, 33 patients were enrolled. Median age was 46 years (range, 18-64 years), and 63.6% of patients had previously received two or more lines of chemotherapy for metastatic disease. Median follow-up was 7.6 months (range, 4.1-17.5 months). ORR was 54.5% (95% CI, 36.4-71.9%) with 3 complete responses (9.1%) and 15 partial responses (45.5%). Median PFS was 6.8 months (95% CI, 5.2 months to not estimable). Median DOR was 7.2 months (95% CI, 4.4 months to not estimable). Median OS was not reached. The most common potential immune-related adverse event (AE) was Grade 1-2 hypothyroidism (42.4%). Treatment-related grade 3 or 4 AEs occurred in 7 patients (21.2%), including nasal necrosis (3/33), hypertension (1/33), pruritus (1/33), total bilirubin increased (1/33) and anaphylactic shock (1/33). No treatment-related deaths and severe epistaxis occurred. Interpretation: This phase 2 trial showed that sintilimab plus bevacizumab demonstrated promising antitumour activity and manageable toxicities in patients with mNPC after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy. Further trials are warranted, and the detailed mechanisms need to be elucidated. Funding: The Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, and the Science and Technology Planning Project of International Cooperation of Guangdong Province.

Widely targeted quantitative lipidomics and prognostic model reveal plasma lipid predictors for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Dysregulation of lipid metabolism is closely associated with cancer progression. The study aimed to establish a prognostic model to predict distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), based on lipidomics. METHODS: The plasma lipid profiles of 179 patients with locoregionally advanced NPC (LANPC) were measured and quantified using widely targeted quantitative lipidomics. Then, patients were randomly split into the training (125 patients, 69.8%) and validation (54 patients, 30.2%) sets. To identify distant metastasis-associated lipids, univariate Cox regression was applied to the training set (P < 0.05). A deep survival method called DeepSurv was employed to develop a proposed model based on significant lipid species (P < 0.01) and clinical biomarkers to predict DMFS. Concordance index and receiver operating curve analyses were performed to assess model effectiveness. The study also explored the potential role of lipid alterations in the prognosis of NPC. RESULTS: Forty lipids were recognized as distant metastasis-associated (P < 0.05) by univariate Cox regression. The concordance indices of the proposed model were 0.764 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.682-0.846) and 0.760 (95% CI, 0.649-0.871) in the training and validation sets, respectively. High-risk patients had poorer 5-year DMFS compared with low-risk patients (Hazard ratio, 26.18; 95% CI, 3.52-194.80; P < 0.0001). Moreover, the six lipids were significantly correlated with immunity- and inflammation-associated biomarkers and were mainly enriched in metabolic pathways. CONCLUSIONS: Widely targeted quantitative lipidomics reveals plasma lipid predictors for LANPC, the prognostic model based on that demonstrated superior performance in predicting metastasis in LANPC patients.

Tumor residue in patients with stage II-IVA nasopharyngeal carcinoma who received intensity-modulated radiation therapy: development and validation of a prediction nomogram integrating postradiotherapy plasma Epstein-Barr virus deoxyribonucleic acid, clinical stage, and radiotherapy dose.

BACKGROUND: To develop and validate a predictive nomogram for tumor residue 3-6 months after treatment based on postradiotherapy plasma Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), clinical stage, and radiotherapy (RT) dose in patients with stage II-IVA nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). METHODS: In this retrospective study, 1050 eligible patients with stage II-IVA NPC, who completed curative IMRT and underwent pretreatment and postradiotherapy (-7 to +28 days after IMRT) EBV DNA testing, were enrolled from 2012 to 2017. The prognostic value of the residue was explored using Cox regression analysis in patients (n=1050). A nomogram for predicting tumor residues after 3-6 months was developed using logistic regression analyses in the development cohort (n=736) and validated in an internal cohort (n=314). RESULTS: Tumor residue was an independent inferior prognostic factor for 5-year overall survival, progression-free survival, locoregional recurrence-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival (all P<0.001). A prediction nomogram based on postradiotherapy plasma EBV DNA level (0 vs. 1-499 vs. ≥500 copies/ml), clinical stage (II vs. III vs. IVA), and RT dose (68.00-69.96 vs. 70.00-74.00 Gy) estimated the probability of residue development. The nomogram showed better discrimination (area under the curve (AUC): 0.752) than either the clinical stage (0.659) or postradiotherapy EBV DNA level (0.627) alone in the development and validation cohorts (AUC: 0.728). CONCLUSIONS: We developed and validated a nomogram model integrating clinical characteristics at the end of IMRT for predicting whether tumor will residue or not after 3-6 months. Thus, high-risk NPC patients who might benefit from immediate additional intervention could be identified by the model, and the probability of residue can be reduced in the future.

The investigation of reduced field-of-view diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: comparison with conventional DWI.

BACKGROUND: Field-of-view optimized and constrained undistorted single-shot imaging (FOCUS) is a new sequence that shows enhanced anatomical details, improving the diffusion-weighted (DW) images. PURPOSE: To investigate the value of FOCUS diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the evaluation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and compare it with the single-shot echo planner imaging (SS-EPI) DWI approach. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 87 patients with NPC underwent magnetic resonance imaging, including FOCUS and SS-EPI DWI sequences. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-intensity ratio (SIR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the nasopharyngeal lesions were measured and compared. According to the clinical stages of patients, T and N were divided into early and advanced stage groups, respectively. The mean ADC values of the two techniques were computed, and the area under the curve (AUC) was estimated to calculate the diagnostic efficiency. RESULTS: Subjective and objective image qualitative values of FOCUS were significantly higher than those of SS-EPI. The ADC values for FOCUS of early T and N stages were significantly lower than those of the advanced stages. CONCLUSION: FOCUS provides significantly better image quality in NPC compared to SS-EPI, with lower ADC values for early-stage disease than late-stage disease.

SurvivalPath:A R package for conducting personalized survival path mapping based on time-series survival data.

The survival path mapping approach has been proposed for dynamic prognostication of cancer patients using time-series survival data. The SurvivalPath R package was developed to facilitate building personalized survival path models. The package contains functions to convert time-series data into time-slices data by fixed interval based on time information of input medical records. After the pre-processing of data, under a user-defined parameters on covariates, significance level, minimum bifurcation sample size and number of time slices for analysis, survival paths can be computed using the main function, which can be visualized as a tree diagram, with important parameters annotated. The package also includes function for analyzing the connections between exposure/treatment and node transitions, and function for screening patient subgroup with specific features, which can be used for further exploration analysis. In this study, we demonstrate the application of this package in a large dataset of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, which is embedded in the package. The SurvivalPath R package is freely available from CRAN, with source code and documentation hosted at https://github.com/zhangt369/SurvivalPath.

Effect of Induction Chemotherapy With Paclitaxel, Cisplatin, and Capecitabine vs Cisplatin and Fluorouracil on Failure-Free Survival for Patients With Stage IVA to IVB Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Multicenter Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Induction chemotherapy added to concurrent chemoradiotherapy significantly improves survival for patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but the optimal induction regimen remains unclear. Objective: To determine whether induction chemotherapy with paclitaxel, cisplatin, and capecitabine (TPC) improves survival vs cisplatin and fluorouracil (PF) prior to chemoradiotherapy for patients with stage IVA to IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Design, Setting, and Participants: This randomized, open-label, phase 3 clinical trial recruited 238 patients at 4 hospitals in China from October 20, 2016, to August 29, 2019. Patients were 18 to 65 years of age with treatment-naive, nonkeratinizing stage IVA to IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 to 1. Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive induction chemotherapy with two 21-day cycles of TPC (intravenous paclitaxel [150 mg/m2, day 1], intravenous cisplatin [60 mg/m2, day 1], and oral capecitabine [1000 mg/m2 orally twice daily, days 1-14]) or PF (intravenous cisplatin [100 mg/m2, day 1] and fluorouracil [800 mg/m2 daily, days 1-5]), followed by chemoradiotherapy. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was failure-free survival in the intention-to-treat population. Secondary end points included distant metastasis-free survival, locoregional relapse-free survival, overall survival, tumor response, and safety. Results: Overall, 238 eligible patients (187 men [78.6%]; median age, 45 years [range, 18-65 years]) were randomly assigned to receive TPC (n = 118) or PF (n = 120). The median follow-up duration was 48.4 months (IQR, 39.6-53.3 months). Failure-free survival at 3 years was 83.5% (95% CI, 77.0%-90.6%) in the TPC group and 68.9% (95% CI, 61.1%-77.8%) in the PF group (stratified hazard ratio [HR] for recurrence or death, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.28-0.79; P = .004). Induction with the TPC regimen resulted in a significant reduction in the risk of distant metastases (stratified HR, 0.49 [95% CI, 0.24-0.98]; P = .04) and locoregional recurrence (stratified HR, 0.40 [95% CI, 0.18-0.93]; P = .03) compared with the PF regimen. However, there was no effect on early overall survival (stratified HR, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.17-1.18]; P = .10). The incidences of grade 3 to 4 acute adverse events and late-onset toxicities were 57.6% (n = 68) and 13.6% (16 of 118), respectively, in the TPC group and 65.8% (n = 79) and 17.9% (21 of 117), respectively, in the PF group. One treatment-related death occurred in the PF group. Conclusions and Relevance: This randomized clinical trial found that induction chemotherapy with 2 cycles of TPC for patients with stage IVA to IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma improved failure-free survival compared with 2 cycles of PF, with no increase in the toxicity profile. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02940925.

The contrast-enhanced MRI can be substituted by unenhanced MRI in identifying and automatically segmenting primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma with the aid of deep learning models: An exploratory study in large-scale population of endemic area.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Administration of contrast is not desirable for all cases in clinical setting, and no consensus in sequence selection for deep learning model development has been achieved, thus we aim to explore whether contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (ceMRI) can be substituted in the identification and segmentation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) with the aid of deep learning models in a large-scale cohort. METHODS: A total of 4478 eligible individuals were randomly split into training, validation and test sets, and self-constrained 3D DenseNet and V-Net models were developed using axial T1-weighted imaging (T1WI), T2WI or enhanced T1WI (T1WIC) images separately. The differential diagnostic performance between NPC and benign hyperplasia were compared among models using chi-square test. Segmentation evaluation metrics, including dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and average surface distance (ASD), were compared using paired student's t-test between T1WIC and T1WI or T2WI models or M_T1/T2, a merged output of malignant region derived from T1WI and T2WI models. RESULTS: All models exhibited similar satisfactory diagnostic performance in discriminating NPC from benign hyperplasia, all attaining overall accuracy over 99.00% in all T stages of NPC. And T1WIC model exhibited similar average DSC and ASD with those of M_T1/T2 (DSC, 0.768±0.070 vs 0.764±0.070; ASD, 1.573±10.954 mm vs 1.626±10.975 mm 1.626±0.975 mm vs 1.573±0.954 mm, all p > 0.0167) in primary NPC using DenseNet, but yielded a significantly higher DSC and lower ASD than either T1WI model or T2WI model (DSC, 0.759±0.065 or 0.755±0.071; ASD, 1.661±0.898 mm or 1.722±1.133 mm, respectively, all p < 0.01) in the entire test set of NPC cohort. Moreover, the average DSCs and ASDs were not statistically significant between T1WIC model and M_T1/T2 in both.

Effect of Capecitabine Maintenance Therapy Plus Best Supportive Care vs Best Supportive Care Alone on Progression-Free Survival Among Patients With Newly Diagnosed Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Who Had Received Induction Chemotherapy: A Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial.

IMPORTANCE: Capecitabine maintenance therapy improves survival outcomes in various cancer types, but data are limited on the efficacy and safety of capecitabine maintenance therapy in metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy and safety of capecitabine maintenance therapy in metastatic NPC. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This randomized phase 3 clinical trial was conducted at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from May 16, 2015, to January 9, 2020, among 104 patients with newly diagnosed metastatic NPC who had achieved disease control after 4 to 6 cycles of induction chemotherapy with paclitaxel, cisplatin, and capecitabine. The final follow-up date was May 30, 2021. All efficacy analyses were conducted in the intention-to-treat population. INTERVENTIONS: Eligible patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either capecitabine maintenance therapy (1000 mg/m2 orally twice daily on days 1-14) every 3 weeks plus best supportive care (BSC) (capecitabine maintenance group) or BSC alone after 4 to 6 cycles of induction chemotherapy. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary end points were objective response rate, duration of response, overall survival, and safety. RESULTS: This study included 104 patients (84 men [80.8%]; median age, 47 years [IQR, 38-54 years]), with 52 assigned to the capecitabine maintenance group and 52 assigned to the BSC group. After a median follow-up of 33.8 months (IQR, 22.9-50.7 months), there were 23 events (44.2%) of progression or death in the capecitabine maintenance group and 37 events (71.2%) of progression or death in the BSC group. Median PFS survival was significantly higher in the capecitabine maintenance group (35.9 months [95% CI, 20.5 months-not reached]) than in the BSC group (8.2 months [95% CI, 6.4-10.0 months]), with a hazard ratio of 0.44 (95% CI, 0.26-0.74; P = .002). Higher objective response rates and longer median duration of response were observed in the capecitabine maintenance group (25.0%; 40.0 months) compared with the BSC group (objective response rate, 25.0% [n = 13] vs 11.5% [n = 6]; and median duration of response, 40.0 months [95% CI, not reached-not reached] vs 13.2 months [95% CI, 9.9-16.5 months]). The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events during maintenance therapy were anemia (6 of 50 [12.0%]), hand-foot syndrome (5 of 50 [10.0%]), nausea and vomiting (3 of 50 [6.0%]), fatigue (2 of 50 [4.0%]), and mucositis (2 of 50 [4.0%]). No deaths in the maintenance group were deemed treatment-related. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this phase 3 randomized clinical trial, capecitabine maintenance therapy significantly improved PFS for patients with newly diagnosed metastatic NPC who achieved disease control after capecitabine-containing induction chemotherapy. Capecitabine exhibited manageable toxic effects. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02460419.

A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Two Different Schedules for Cisplatin Treatment in Patients with Locoregionally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Cancer.

PURPOSE: Previous studies suggest that a cumulative cisplatin dose of 200 mg/m2 might be adequate in the intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) era for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LANPC). However, two cycles of once-every-3-weeks cisplatin at 100 mg/m2 has never been prospectively compared with standard once-a-week cisplatin regimen. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This trial was conducted at three hospitals from 2011 to 2016. Patients who met the eligibility criteria were recruited (ChiCTR-TRC-12001979) and randomly assigned (1:1) via a computer-generated sequence to receive once-every-3-weeks cisplatin at 100 mg/m2 for two cycles or once-a-week cisplatin at 40 mg/m2 for six cycles concurrently with IMRT. Primary endpoint was failure-free survival and between-group absolute difference of 10% as the noninferiority margin. RESULTS: A total of 510 patients were enrolled. Median follow-up time was 58.3 months with 85.4% of 3-year failure-free survival in the once-every-3-weeks group and 85.6% in the once-a-week group. An absolute difference of -0.2% (95% confidence interval, -6.3 to 5.9; P noninferiority = 0.0016). Acute toxicities of grade 3 or higher occurred in 55.8% in the once-every-3-weeks group and 66.3% in the once-a-week group (P = 0.015). The most common acute toxicities were hematologic abnormalities, including leukopenia (16% vs. 27%; P = 0.0022) and thrombocytopenia (1% vs. 5%; P = 0.015). The late grade 3-4 auditory loss rate was significantly lower in the once-every-3-weeks group than the once-a-week group (6% vs. 13%; P = 0.0039). CONCLUSIONS: Once-every-3-weeks cisplatin as concurrent chemoradiotherapy is noninferior to once-a-week cisplatin in the treatment efficacy in the LANPC. Although both regimens are well tolerated, severe acute toxicities and late-onset auditory loss are higher in the once-a-week group.

Induction chemotherapy with lobaplatin and fluorouracil versus cisplatin and fluorouracil followed by chemoradiotherapy in patients with stage III-IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma: an open-label, non-inferiority, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial.

BACKGROUND: Cisplatin-based induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy in the treatment of patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma has been recommended in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines. However, cisplatin is associated with poor patient compliance and has notable side-effects. Lobaplatin, a third-generation platinum drug, has shown promising antitumour activity against several malignancies with less toxicity. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of lobaplatin-based induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy over a cisplatin-based regimen in patients with locoregional, advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. METHODS: In this open-label, non-inferiority, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial done at five hospitals in China, patients aged 18-60 years with previously untreated, non-keratinising stage III-IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Karnofsky performance-status score of at least 70; and adequate haematological, renal, and hepatic function were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive intravenously either lobaplatin-based (lobaplatin 30 mg/m2 on days 1 and 22, and fluorouracil 800 mg/m2 on days 1-5 and 22-26 for two cycles) or cisplatin-based (cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on days 1 and 22, and fluorouracil 800 mg/m2 on days 1-5 and 22-26 for two cycles) induction chemotherapy, followed by concurrent lobaplatin-based (two cycles of intravenous lobaplatin 30 mg/m2 every 3 weeks plus intensity-modulated radiotherapy) or cisplatin-based (two cycles of intravenous cisplatin 100 mg/m2 every 3 weeks plus intensity-modulated radiotherapy) chemoradiotherapy. Total radiation doses of 68-70 Gy (for the sum of the volumes of the primary tumour and enlarged retropharyngeal nodes), 62-68 Gy (for the volume of clinically involved gross cervical lymph nodes), 60 Gy (for the high-risk target volume), and 54 Gy (for the low-risk target volume), were administered in 30-32 fractions, 5 days per week. Randomisation was done centrally at the clinical trial centre of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre by means of computer-generated random number allocation with a block design (block size of four) stratified according to disease stage and treatment centre. Treatment assignment was known to both clinicians and patients. The primary endpoint was 5-year progression-free survival, analysed in both the intention-to-treat and per-protocol populations. If the upper limit of the 95% CI for the difference in 5-year progression-free survival between the lobaplatin-based and cisplatin-based groups did not exceed 10%, non-inferiority was met. Adverse events were analysed in all patients who received at least one cycle of induction chemotherapy. This trial is registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR-TRC-13003285 and is closed. FINDINGS: From June 7, 2013, to June 16, 2015, 515 patients were assessed for eligibility and 502 patients were enrolled: 252 were randomly assigned to the lobaplatin-based group and 250 to the cisplatin-based group. After a median follow-up of 75·3 months (IQR 69·9-81·1) in the intention-to-treat population, 5-year progression-free survival was 75·0% (95% CI 69·7-80·3) in the lobaplatin-based group and 75·5% (70·0 to 81·0) in the cisplatin-based group (hazard ratio [HR] 0·98, 95% CI 0·69-1·39; log-rank p=0·92), with a difference of 0·5% (95% CI -7·1 to 8·1; pnon-inferiority=0·0070). In the per-protocol population, the 5-year progression-free survival was 74·8% (95% CI 69·3 to 80·3) in the lobaplatin-based group and 76·4% (70·9 to 81·9) in the cisplatin-based group (HR 1·04, 95% CI 0·73 to 1·49; log-rank p=0·83), with a difference of 1·6% (-6·1 to 9·3; pnon-inferiority=0·016). 63 (25%) of 252 patients in the lobaplatin-based group and 63 (25%) of 250 patients in the cisplatin-based group had a progression-free survival event in the intention-to-treat population; 62 (25%) of 246 patients in the lobaplatin-based group and 58 (25%) of 237 patients in the cisplatin-based group had a progression-free survival event in the per-protocol population. The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were mucositis (102 [41%] of 252 in the lobaplatin-based group vs 99 [40%] of 249 in the cisplatin-based group), leucopenia (39 [16%] vs 56 [23%]), and neutropenia (25 [10%] vs 59 [24%]). No treatment-related deaths were reported. INTERPRETATION: Lobaplatin-based induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy resulted in non-inferior survival and fewer toxic effects than cisplatin-based therapy. The results of our trial indicate that lobaplatin-based induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy might be a promising alternative regimen to cisplatin-based treatment in patients with locoregional, advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. FUNDING: National Science and Technology Pillar Program, International Cooperation Project of Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province, Planned Science and Technology Project of Guangdong Province, and Cultivation Foundation for the Junior Teachers at Sun Yat-sen University. TRANSLATION: For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

A Prognostic Predictive System Based on Deep Learning for Locoregionally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Images from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are crucial unstructured data for prognostic evaluation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We developed and validated a prognostic system based on the MRI features and clinical data of locoregionally advanced NPC (LA-NPC) patients to distinguish low-risk patients with LA-NPC for whom concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is sufficient. METHODS: This multicenter, retrospective study included 3444 patients with LA-NPC from January 1, 2010, to January 31, 2017. A 3-dimensional convolutional neural network was used to learn the image features from pretreatment MRI images. An eXtreme Gradient Boosting model was trained with the MRI features and clinical data to assign an overall score to each patient. Comprehensive evaluations were implemented to assess the performance of the predictive system. We applied the overall score to distinguish high-risk patients from low-risk patients. The clinical benefit of induction chemotherapy (IC) was analyzed in each risk group by survival curves. RESULTS: We constructed a prognostic system displaying a concordance index of 0.776 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.746 to 0.806) for the internal validation cohort and 0.757 (95% CI = 0.695 to 0.819), 0.719 (95% CI = 0.650 to 0.789), and 0.746 (95% CI = 0.699 to 0.793) for the 3 external validation cohorts, which presented a statistically significant improvement compared with the conventional TNM staging system. In the high-risk group, patients who received induction chemotherapy plus CCRT had better outcomes than patients who received CCRT alone, whereas there was no statistically significant difference in the low-risk group. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed framework can capture more complex and heterogeneous information to predict the prognosis of patients with LA-NPC and potentially contribute to clinical decision making.

The diagnostic performance of quantitative mapping in breast cancer patients: a preliminary study using synthetic MRI.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have indicated that quantitative MRI (qMR) is beneficial for diagnosis of breast cancer. As a novel qMR technology, synthetic MRI (syMRI) may be advantageous by offering simultaneous generation of T1 and T2 mapping in one scan within a few minutes and without concern to the deposition of the gadolinium contrast agent in cell nucleus. In this study, the potential of quantitative mapping derived from Synthetic MRI (SyMRI) to diagnose breast cancer was investigated. METHODS: From April 2018 to May 2019, a total of 87 patients with suspicious breast lesions underwent both conventional and SyMRI before treatment. The quantitative metrics derived from SyMRI, including T1 and T2 values, were measured in breast lesions. The diagnostic performance of SyMRI was evaluated with unpaired Student's t-tests, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis. The AUCs of quantitative values were compared using Delong test. RESULTS: Among 77 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 48 were diagnosed with histopathological confirmed breast cancers, and the rest had benign lesions. The breast cancers showed significantly higher T1 (1611.61 ± 215.88 ms) values and lower T2 (80.93 ± 7.51 ms) values than benign lesions. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values were 0.931 (95% CI: 0.874-0.989) and 0.883 (95% CI: 0.810-0.956) for T1 and T2 maps, respectively, in diagnostic discrimination between breast cancers and benign lesions. A slightly increased AUC of 0.978 (95% CI: 0.915-0.993) was achieved by combining those two relaxation-based quantitative metrics. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our preliminary study showed that the quantitative T1 and T2 values obtained by SyMRI could distinguish effectively between benign and malignant breast lesions, and T1 relaxation time showed the highest diagnostic efficiency. Furthermore, combining the two quantitative relaxation metrics further improved their diagnostic performance.

Primary effusion lymphoma enhancer connectome links super-enhancers to dependency factors.

Primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) has a very poor prognosis. To evaluate the contributions of enhancers/promoters interactions to PEL cell growth and survival, here we produce H3K27ac HiChIP datasets in PEL cells. This allows us to generate the PEL enhancer connectome, which links enhancers and promoters in PEL genome-wide. We identify more than 8000 genomic interactions in each PEL cell line. By incorporating HiChIP data with H3K27ac ChIP-seq data, we identify interactions between enhancers/enhancers, enhancers/promoters, and promoters/promoters. HiChIP further links PEL super-enhancers to PEL dependency factors MYC, IRF4, MCL1, CCND2, MDM2, and CFLAR. CRISPR knock out of MEF2C and IRF4 significantly reduces MYC and IRF4 super-enhancer H3K27ac signal. Knock out also reduces MYC and IRF4 expression. CRISPRi perturbation of these super-enhancers by tethering transcription repressors to enhancers significantly reduces target gene expression and reduces PEL cell growth. These data provide insights into PEL molecular pathogenesis.

Epstein-Barr Virus Episome Physically Interacts with Active Regions of the Host Genome in Lymphoblastoid Cells.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) episome is known to interact with the three-dimensional structure of the human genome in infected cells. However, the exact locations of these interactions and their potential functional consequences remain unclear. Recently, high-resolution chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) assays in lymphoblastoid cells have become available, enabling us to precisely map the contacts between the EBV episome(s) and the human host genome. Using available Hi-C data at a 10-kb resolution, we have identified 15,000 reproducible contacts between EBV episome(s) and the human genome. These contacts are highly enriched in chromatin regions denoted by typical or super enhancers and active markers, including histone H3K27ac and H3K4me1. Additionally, these contacts are highly enriched at loci bound by host transcription factors that regulate B cell growth (e.g., IKZF1 and RUNX3), factors that enhance cell proliferation (e.g., HDGF), or factors that promote viral replication (e.g., NBS1 and NFIC). EBV contacts show nearly 2-fold enrichment in host regions bound by EBV nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA2) and EBNA3 transcription factors. Circular chromosome conformation capture followed by sequencing (4C-seq) using the EBV origin of plasmid replication (oriP) as a "bait" in lymphoblastoid cells further confirmed contacts with active chromatin regions. Collectively, our analysis supports interactions between EBV episome(s) and active regions of the human genome in lymphoblastoid cells.IMPORTANCE EBV is associated with ∼200,000 cancers each year. In vitro, EBV can transform primary human B lymphocytes into immortalized cell lines. EBV-encoded proteins, along with noncoding RNAs and microRNAs, hijack cellular proteins and pathways to control cell growth. EBV nuclear proteins usurp normal transcriptional programs to activate the expression of key oncogenes, including MYC, to provide a proliferation signal. EBV nuclear antigens also repress CDKN2A to suppress senescence. EBV membrane protein activates NF-κB to provide survival signals. EBV genomes are maintained by EBNA1, which tethers EBV episomes to the host chromosomes during mitosis. However, little is known about where EBV episomes are located in interphase cells. In interphase cells, EBV promoters drive the expression of latency genes, while oriP functions as an enhancer for these promoters. In this study, integrative analyses of published lymphoblastoid cell line (LCL) Hi-C data and our 4C-seq experiments position EBV episomes to host genomes with active epigenetic marks. These contact points were significantly enriched for super enhancers. The close proximity of EBV episomes and the super enhancers that are enriched for transcription cofactors or mediators in lymphoblasts may benefit EBV gene expression, suggesting a novel mechanism of transcriptional activation.

Prognostic and Treatment Guiding Significance of MRI-Based Tumor Burden Features and Nodal Necrosis in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

We aimed to develop a nomogram integrating MRI-based tumor burden features (MTBF), nodal necrosis, and some clinical factors to forecast the distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) of patients suffering from non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A total of 1640 patients treated at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (Guangzhou, China) from 2011 to 2016 were enrolled, among which 1148 and 492 patients were randomized to a training cohort and an internal validation cohort, respectively. Additionally, 200 and 257 patients were enrolled in the Foshan and Dongguan validation cohorts, respectively, which served as independent external validation cohorts. The MTBF were developed from the stepwise regression of six multidimensional tumor burden variables, based on which we developed a nomogram also integrating nodal necrosis and clinical features. This model divided the patients into high- and low-risk groups by an optimal cutoff. Compared with those of patients in the low-risk group, the DMFS [hazard ratio (HR): 4.76, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.39-6.69; p < 0.0001], and progression-free survival (PFS; HR: 4.11, 95% CI: 3.13-5.39; p < 0.0001) of patients in the high-risk group were relatively poor. Furthermore, in the training cohort, the 3-year DMFS of high-risk patients who received induction chemotherapy (ICT) combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) was better than that of those who were treated with CCRT alone (p = 0.0340), whereas low-risk patients who received ICT + CCRT had a similar DMFS to those who only received CCRT. The outcomes we obtained were all verified in the three validation cohorts. The survival model can be used as a reliable prognostic tool for NPC patients and is helpful to determine patients who will benefit from ICT.

Deep learning for risk prediction in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma using multi-parametric MRIs.

BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance images (MRI) is the main diagnostic tool for risk stratification and treatment decision in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the holistic feature information of multi-parametric MRIs has not been fully exploited by clinicians to accurately evaluate patients. OBJECTIVE: To help clinicians fully utilize the missed information to regroup patients, we built an end-to-end deep learning model to extract feature information from multi-parametric MRIs for predicting and stratifying the risk scores of NPC patients. METHODS: In this paper, we proposed an end-to-end multi-modality deep survival network (MDSN) to precisely predict the risk of disease progression of NPC patients. Extending from 3D dense net, this proposed MDSN extracted deep representation from multi-parametric MRIs (T1w, T2w, and T1c). Moreover, deep features and clinical stages were integrated through MDSN to more accurately predict the overall risk score (ORS) of individual NPC patient. RESULT: A total of 1,417 individuals treated between January 2012 and December 2014 were included for training and validating the end-to-end MDSN. Results were then tested in a retrospective cohort of 429 patients included in the same institution. The C-index of the proposed method with or without clinical stages was 0.672 and 0.651 on the test set, respectively, which was higher than the that of the stage grouping (0.610). CONCLUSIONS: The C-index of the model which integrated clinical stages with deep features is 0.062 higher than that of stage grouping alone (0.672 vs 0.610). We conclude that features extracted from multi-parametric MRIs based on MDSN can well assist the clinical stages in regrouping patients.