Radiotherapy Combined With PD-1 Inhibitor and Anti-EGFR Monoclonal Antibody for Locally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Resistant to Induction Chemotherapy: A Prospective Phase II Study

Because nasopharyngeal carcinoma （NPC）is very sensitive to radiation and the specificity of the anatomical structure, radiotherapy has become the core treatment for NPC. Although induction chemotherapy combined with cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy can effectively improve the overall survival and progression-free survival of NPC, such a sequential pattern can further exacerbate the toxic side effects of treatment, such as mucosal reactions and gastrointestinal toxicity. Therefore, it is particularly important to explore another treatment mode with high efficiency and low toxicity. Secondly, patients with poor response after induction chemotherapy indicate chemotherapy resistance. Whether patients can still benefit from concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy in the followed radiotherapy is doubtful. PD-1 inhibitor and anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody have proved to improve outcomes of head and neck cancers including EBV-related NPC, which have also showed relatively low toxicity. In this study, radiotherapy combined with PD-1 inhibitor and anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody were applied to treat patients with locally advanced NPC who were resistant to induction chemotherapy.