Research progress on immunotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant carcinoma that is closely associated with Epstein Barr virus (EBV) infection. After the comprehensive treatment based on modern intensity-modulated radiation therapy, the oncological outcomes can be further improved. The main target of treatment is to increase the efficacy of patients with high risk and recurrent/metastatic (R/M) NPC. Recently, continuous progress has been made in the application of immunotherapy in the field of cancer treatment. Based on the accumulated knowledge on EBV antigen and immune checkpoint inhibitors, significant progress has been made in use of immunotherapy in treating R/M-NPC. Immunotherapy combined with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy will become the hot spot in the clinical management of patients with newly-diagnosed high-risk NPC.