Adoptive Immune-Cell Therapy for the Treatment of Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix

Abstract

Background/Aim: We aimed to investigate the efficacy of immune-cell therapy in terms of the survival of patients with neuroendocrine carcinoma of the uterine cervix (NECC), which lacks standardized therapeutic approaches. Patients and Methods: We identified 17 patients who were diagnosed as having NECC and treated with immune-cell therapy. The clinical characteristics of these patients were extracted from their records and their overall survival was measured. Results: Of the 17 patients, two patients with earlystage NECC without recurrence and three patients with less than four treatments were excluded. The median survival times from the time of diagnosis and from the initial administration of immune-cell therapy were 49.7 and 24.4 months, respectively. The overall survival rates at 1, 2, and 5 years were 63.6%, 38.2%, and 25.5%, respectively. Long-term survival was observed in the patients with distant metastases. Conclusion: The preliminary results of this retrospective study suggested the potential efficacy of immune-cell therapy for NECC.Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the uterine cervix (NECC) is a rare malignant disease that accounts for less than 5% of all cervical cancer. NECC can be classified into small-cell, largecell, or mixed-cell type, all of which are aggressive, with early nodal and distant metastases, often resulting in a poor prognosis. In a study of 130 patients with small-cell NECC, the 5-year cancer-specific survival was reported to be 63% at

Integration of immunotherapy into treatment of cervical cancer: Recent data and ongoing trials

“…Little guidance on optimal therapy exists and patients commonly receive radiotherapybased treatment or radical surgery combined with neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemotherapy, with recurrence averaging 16 months after treatment and with a mean OS duration of 40 months [81,82]. Small exploratory studies and case reports in patients with previously treated neuroendocrine tumors exhibit positive results with nivolumab combinations or monotherapy [83][84][85] and with adoptive immune cell therapy [86], but not with pembrolizumab monotherapy [87]. Further studies of immunotherapy in these rare tumors are needed.…”

Recent Advances in the Management of Small Cell Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix

“…Moreover, the use of the mitogenactivated protein kinase 1 (MEK)-inhibitor trametinib in a woman with recurrent SCNEC, who experienced CR, has been described (38). Immune-cell therapy has also been reported to be effective for survival and preventing recurrence in patients with early-stage as well as advanced-stage NECC (54).…”