NCT06722495

Efficacy and Safety of a Third-Course of Neoadjuvant Immunochemotherapy Combined With SBRT in Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients With Stable Disease After Two Treatment Courses: A Single-Arm Exploratory Study

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 20 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Neoadjuvant immunotherapy before surgery has shown good efficacy and safety in locally advanced HNSCC, particularly with the use of PD-1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy, where some patients have achieved a high rate of pathological complete response. However, approximately 40% of patients respond poorly to neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy, with prolonged treatment courses failing to significantly improve outcomes, and some patients may even experience disease progression. For these patients, timely surgery or definitive radiotherapy combined with other well-tolerated therapeutic approaches is needed to improve pathological response rates, enhance long-term survival, and preserve organ function.

Detailed description

In recent years, the introduction of PD-1 inhibitors has revolutionized cancer treatment, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) shows HNSCC is one of the most immunogenic cancers, linked to immune dysfunction such as impaired immune cell function and antigen presentation defects. Immunotherapy, alone or combined with chemotherapy, has become the standard first-line treatment for recurrent or metastatic HNSCC, as supported by clinical trials like Keynote-040, Keynote-048, and CheckMate 141, which demonstrated improved patient outcomes. There is also growing interest in neoadjuvant immunotherapy for locally advanced HNSCC. A phase II clinical trial (NCT03174275) showed that neoadjuvant camrelizumab combined with cisplatin and paclitaxel achieved a pathologic complete response (pCR) rate of 37% and a major pathological response (MPR) rate of 74%. Another trial combining PD-1 inhibitor tislelizumab with nab-paclitaxel, platinum, and fluorouracil reported an objective response rate (ORR) of 85.7% and a pCR rate of 42.9%. In a retrospective analysis of 110 locally advanced oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) patients treated at our institution, the ORR after two cycles of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy was 55.4%, with 41% of patients showing stable disease (SD). Further treatment cycles did not improve outcomes for these patients, highlighting the need for alternative treatments for those unresponsive to neoadjuvant therapy.

Conditions

• SBRT
• Neoadjuvant Immunochemotherapy
• LA HNSCC

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
RADIATION	SBRT	Patient will receive SBRT (8Gy\*3F) in combination with the original regimen of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy in course 3. Gross tumor target volume (GTV) based on the primary foci clearly identified by clinical and imaging examinations. The GTV was discharged 3 mm to generate a Planning target volume (PTV). the target area (PTV) was dosed accordingly to the PTV.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-12-24
• Primary completion: 2026-09-26
• Completion: 2026-12-26
• First posted: 2024-12-09
• Last updated: 2024-12-09

Locations

1 site across 1 country: China