Enhancing efficacy and reducing toxicity: Therapeutic optimization in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: When applied as the standard therapeutic modality, intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) improves local control and survival rates in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, distant metastasis continues to be the leading cause of treatment failure. Here, we review the most recent optimization strategies for combining chemotherapy with IMRT in high-risk patients with locoregionally advanced NPC. We focus on major clinical trials on induction chemotherapy and metronomic adjuvant chemotherapy, emphasizing their efficacy in mitigating distant metastasis and prognosis. We also highlight innovations in reducing toxicity in low-risk patients, particularly through approaches of excluding chemotherapy, adopting equivalent low-toxicity drugs, or selectively exempting lymph nodes wit

SUBMITTER: Jiang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11228659 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature