Induction gemcitabine and cisplatin in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma

The standard of care for patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma is concurrent platinum-based chemoradiotherapy. Existing literature have demonstrated that the addition of gemcitabine and cisplatin as induction chemotherapy in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma may have promising efficacy but were from phase 2 clinical trials. Stronger evidence-based data in forms of phase 3 clinical trial investigating the survival benefits of adding gemcitabine and cisplatin induction chemotherapy for such patients have been urgently warranted. In one of our recent studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Gemcitabine and cisplatin induction chemotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma”, 480 locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients from 12 hospitals across China were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either chemoradiotherapy alone or gemcitabine plus cisplatin and chemoradiotherapy. Our findings evinced that, as compared to chemoradiotherapy alone, the addition of induction chemotherapy comprising of gemcitabine plus cisplatin to concurrent cisplatin-radiotherapy to patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma was safe, demonstrated improved recurrence-free survival, overall survival, and distant recurrence-free survival, and marginally superior locoregional recurrence-free survival.