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Updated: Dec 23, 2025

Therapy Testing in a Spheroid-based 3D Cell Culture Model for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Published on: April 20, 2018
Feasibility and efficiency of double-agent versus single-agent concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with
Guanjie Qin1, Raju Rai2, Rongjun Zhang1
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, 15 Lequn Road, Guilin 541001, China.
Purpose:
Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is the mainstay of treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. It remains unclear whether double-agent CCRT (d-CCRT) is more effective than single-agent CCRT (s-CCRT). In this study, we compared the treatment efficiency and toxicity of d-CCRT with s-CCRT in NPC patients.
Methods And Materials:
Patients with stage II-IV NPC treated with d-CCRT or s-CCRT were retrospectively reviewed. The d-CCRT group patients were compared with s-CCRT group patients for overall survival (OS), locoregional relapse-free survival (LRRFS), disease-free survival (DFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and toxicity. Differences in baseline characteristics were adjusted using the pair-matching method.
Results:
In this study, 933 patients who received CCRT for NPC between 2011 and 2014 were pair-matched at a 1:2 ratio (n = 311 for d-CCRT; n = 622 for s-CCRT). The d-CCRT treated patients showed no significant advantages in terms of 4-year OS (87.2% vs. 85.5%), DFS (84.1% vs. 79.5%), LRRFS (94.6% vs. 91.8%), DMFS (87.5% vs. 85.5%) compared with s-CCRT treated patients (P = 0.450, 0.106, 0.203, 0.366, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that CCRT regimen had no significant effects on survival. In the d-CCRT group, the incidence of grade 3-4 hematological toxicities was significantly higher.
Conclusions:
The d-CCRT regimen did not confer significant survival benefits compared with the s-CCRT regimen in the treatment of stage II-IV NPC patients. Furthermore, patients treated with the d-CCRT regimen experienced greater hematological toxicity.
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