Gemcitabine plus cisplatin chemoradiotherapy followed by BCT and adjuvant gemcitabine/cisplatin chemotherapy improved survival outcomes with increased but clinically manageable toxicity when compared with standard treatment.

Approximately 70% of EBV-positive NPC expressed PD-L1, but this did not correlate with patient survival or clinicopathologic features. The findings of this study represent the immune biomarker profile of confirmed EBV-associated NPC in an endemic region. Since the current clinical development of immune checkpoint inhibitor for NPC is mostly focusing on an EBV-associated tumor, differences in immune biomarker profiles and EBV status of endemic and nonendemic regions should be further explored.

Background: Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is one of the major long term side effects from radiation therapy (RT) in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) patients. This study aims to review the incidences of SNHL when treating with different radiation techniques. The additional objective is to determine the relationship of the SNHL with the radiation doses delivered to the inner ear. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 134 individual ears from 68 NPC patients, treated with conventional RT and IMRT in combination with chemotherapy from 2004-2008 was performed. Dosimetric data of the cochlea were analyzed. Significant SNHL was defined as > 15 dB increase in bone conduction threshold at 4 kHz and PTA (pure tone average of 0.5, 1, 2 kHz). Relative risk (RR) was used to determine the associated factors with the hearing threshold changes at 4 kHz and PTA.

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