A Multi-center, Retrospective Analysis of Clinical Character, Outcome and Prognosis of Lymphoepithelioma-like Carcinoma

Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) is a rare EBV-related tumor. Its histology is similar to that of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In 2004, the WHO classified LELC into one subtype of large cell carcinoma, and the 2015 WHO classified it as other and unclassified cancers. LELC can originate in many organs, including parotid glands, throat, lungs, digestive tract, genitourinary system, etc. Driver gene mutations are rarely seen, and most of them are PD-L1 positive. In terms of treatment, there is no standard first-line treatment for lymphoepithelioma-like cancer. Patients with early-stage lymphoepithelioma-like cancer can receive surgery or radiotherapy, while palliative radiotherapy or chemotherapy is the main treatment for patients in advanced stage. The survival time is about 107 months, the 5-year OS is 59.5%, which is better than the prognosis of lung squamous cell carcinoma in the same period. A retrospective study of Sun yat-sen University Cancer Hospital included 127 patients with advanced lung LELC who received first-line chemotherapy between 2007 and 2018. Gemcitabine and platinum based chemotherapy and paclitaxel and platinum based regimens are significantly better than pemetrexed and platinum, but most of the current studies on lymphoepithelioma-like cancer focus on LELC that originates in the lung. But for other sites, such as parotid glands, liver, digestive tract, are mostly based on case reports, and there are few retrospective studies with large samples to explore their clinical features and treatment outcome. Therefore, investigators designed this retrospective clinical study to analyze the clinical characteristics, treatment, survival, and prognostic risk factors of patients with lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma in order to summary the clinical character and guide treatment.