Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China
Jun Ma , Yu-Pei Chen , Ying Sun , Qin Zhou , Kun-Yu Yang , Feng Jin , Xiao-Dong Zhu , Mei Shi , Guoqing Hu , Yan Sun , Hong-Fen Wu , Hui Wu , Qin Lin , Hui Wang , Ye Tian , Ning Zhang , Xicheng Wang , Liangfang Shen , Fangyun Xie , Xu Liu
Background: Patients suffering from locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) commonly develop disease recurrence, despite a high rate of complete clinical remission after standard of care (concurrent cisplatin-radiotherapy, with or without induction chemotherapy). The benefit of additional adjuvant chemotherapy remains unclear. Methods: Patients with high-risk locoregionally advanced NPC (stage III to IVA, excluding T3-4N0 and T3N1), and with no locoregional disease or distant metastasis after definitive chemoradiotherapy, were eligible. They were randomly assigned (1:1) within 12 to 16 weeks after the last radiation dose to receive either capecitabine at a dose of 650 mg/m2 twice daily for 1 year (metronomic capecitabine group) or observation (standard-therapy group). The primary end point was recurrence-free survival (RFS). The calculated sample size was 201 per group, with an 80% power (two-sided α 0.05) to detect a target hazard ratio (HR) of 0.52. Results: A total of 406 patients underwent randomization, comprising 204 in the metronomic capecitabine group and 202 in the standard-therapy group. After a median follow-up of 36 months (corresponding to 43 months when calculated from the start of standard therapy), the estimated 3-year RFS was 85.9% in the metronomic capecitabine group, as compared with 76.5% in the standard-therapy group (intention-to-treat population; HR 0.51, 95% confidence interval 0.32–0.81; P = 0.003). The incidence of grade 3 adverse events was 17.4% in the metronomic capecitabine group and 5.5% in the standard-therapy group; hand-foot syndrome was the most common adverse event related to capecitabine (9.0%). One grade 4 neutropenia occurred in the metronomic capecitabine group. Neither group sufferd from treatment-related deaths. During treatment, there was no clinically meaningful deterioration of health-related quality of life associated with the use of metronomic adjuvant capecitabine. Conclusions: The addition of metronomic capecitabine as adjuvant therapy to chemoradiotherapy significantly improved RFS in locoregionally advanced NPC, with a manageable safety profile and no compromise to quality of life. Clinical trial information: NCT02958111
Intention-to-treat population | Metronomic capecitabine (%) | Standard therapy (%) | P value |
---|---|---|---|
n = 204 | n = 202 | ||
3-yr recurrence-free survival | 85.9 | 76.5 | 0.003 |
3-yr overall survival | 93.6 | 89.6 | 0.03 |
3-yr distant recurrence-free survival | 90.5 | 82.1 | 0.008 |
3-yr locoregional recurrence-free survival | 92.6 | 88.2 | 0.05 |
Safety population | n = 201 | n = 200 | |
Completed the 1-year treatment period | 74.1 | -- | |
Any grade 3 adverse events | 17.4 | 5.5 | |
Any grade 4 adverse events | 0.5 | 0 |
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Abstract Disclosures
2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
First Author: MingYuan Chen
2021 ASCO Annual Meeting
First Author: Jingjing Miao
2022 ASCO Annual Meeting
First Author: Cheng Xu