Concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (CCRT-AC) is currently recommended as the standard treatment for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA-NPC). Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (NAC-CCRT) is an alternative strategy for decreasing tumor size and controlling micrometastases before main treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare survival outcomes between LA-NPC patients treated with CCRT-AC and those treated with NAC-CCRT. This retrospective cohort study included consecutive histologically confirmed LA-NPC patients that were treated with NAC-CCRT or CCRT-AC at Siriraj Hospital during the March 2010 to October 2014 study period. CCRT in both protocols consisted of 3-week cycles of cisplatin 100 mg/m2 with concurrent radiotherapy. Either NAC or AC consisted of 3-week cycles of cisplatin on day 1 and fluorouracil/leucovorin on days 1–4 for a maximum three cycles. The primary endpoint was 5-year overall survival (OS). Flexible parametric survival analysis was used, because the proportional hazards assumption of Cox regression was violated. Of the 266 LA-NPC patients that received treatment during the study period, 79 received NAC-CCRT and 187 received CCRT-AC. Median follow-up was 37 months. Significantly more patients with advanced clinical stage (stage IVA-IVB) received NAC-CCRT (86% in NAC-CCRT vs. 29% in CCRT-AC; p < 0.001). Compared to CCRT-AC in crude analysis, 3-year and 5-year OS of NAC-CCRT were 72% vs. 86% and 62% vs. 75% respectively (p = 0.059). Interestingly, the 3-year and 5-year post-estimation adjusted OS was 84% and 74% for NAC-CCRT and 81% and 70% for CCRT-AC, respectively (HR: 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.45–1.56; p = 0.571). Also, adjusted analysis of distant-metastasis survival, NAC-CCRT showed HR was 0.79 (95% CI:0.37–1.72, p = 0.557). Conversely, adjusted analysis of locoregional relapse (LLR)-free survival revealed NAC-CCRT to have a significantly higher risk of LRR (HR: 2.18, 95% CI: 0.98–4.87; p = 0.057). The results suggested that prognosis in the NAC-CCRT treated patients was not superior to that of the CCRT-AC treated individuals. In patients that receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy, locoregional relapse should be of concern. High-risk distant metastasis patients (N3 stage) that could achieve survival advantage from NAC-CCRT is an interesting and important topic for further study.

PURPOSE: The incidence and survival rates of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) vary globally, influenced by factors such as ethnicity, lifestyle, and health care systems. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients with HNSCC treated between 2008 and 2020 in four major Thai academic cancer centers, using a multidisciplinary multicenter database. The study focused on the evolution of patient characteristics, survival changes, and treatment landscape alterations over time. RESULTS: Among 6,319 patients, the most common primary sites were nasopharynx (33%), oral cavity (23%), oropharynx (17%), larynx (15%), and hypopharynx (8%). An increase in human papillomavirus–related oropharyngeal carcinoma was noted, from 13% in 2008 to 42% in 2019-2020. The majority of patients presented with locally advanced (LA) stages (IVa/b: 50%, III: 26%). Chemoradiotherapy (54%) and surgery (24%) were the main treatments, with cisplatin (79%) being most commonly used in chemoradiation. Overall survival (OS) improved annually across all subsites, correlating with an increase in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) use, from 25% in 2008 to 90% in 2019-2020. The median follow-up duration was 4.59 years, with a minimum of 2.75 years. Patients treated with IMRT had significantly longer OS compared with those treated with non-IMRT techniques, in both NPC and non-NPC HNSCC ( P < .001). CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the largest study in Thailand that demonstrates increasing survival outcomes in patients with HNSCC and NPC, despite commonly presenting with LA stages. The increasing use of IMRT may be contributing to improved survival outcomes in both patients with NPC and non-NPC HNSCC patients.

This paper proposes a time-series deep-learning 3D Kinect camera scheme to classify the respiratory phases with a lung tumor and predict the lung tumor displacement. Specifically, the proposed scheme is driven by two time-series deep-learning algorithmic models: the respiratory-phase classification model and the regression-based prediction model. To assess the performance of the proposed scheme, the classification and prediction models were tested with four categories of datasets: patient-based datasets with regular and irregular breathing patterns; and pseudopatient-based datasets with regular and irregular breathing patterns. In this study, ‘pseudopatients’ refer to a dynamic thorax phantom with a lung tumor programmed with varying breathing patterns and breaths per minute. The total accuracy of the respiratory-phase classification model was 100%, 100%, 100%, and 92.44% for the four dataset categories, with a corresponding mean squared error (MSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and coefficient of determination (R²) of 1.2–1.6%, 0.65–0.8%, and 0.97–0.98, respectively. The results demonstrate that the time-series deep-learning classification and regression-based prediction models can classify the respiratory phases and predict the lung tumor displacement with high accuracy. Essentially, the novelty of this research lies in the use of a low-cost 3D Kinect camera with time-series deep-learning algorithms in the medical field to efficiently classify the respiratory phase and predict the lung tumor displacement.

To develop and validate a prognostic model, including the minor lymphatic pathway (internal iliac and presacral nodes). Study design: Retrospective cohort. Participants: Locally advanced cervical cancer underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Sample size: 397 and 384 patients in the development and validation data set. Predictors: Our new nodal staging system with the minor lymphatic pathway. Outcome: Distant metastases. Statistical analysis: Cox regression; net reclassification improvement (NRI) and decision curve analysis (DCA). Our new nodal system was the strongest predictor. The predictors in the final model were new nodal system, tumor stage, adenocarcinoma, initial hemoglobin, tumor size and age. The nodal system and the pretreatment model had concordance indices of 0.661 and 0.708, respectively, with good calibration curves. Compared to the OUTBACK eligibility criteria, the nodal system showed NRI for both cases (22%) and controls (16%). The pretreatment model showed NRI for cases (31%) and controls (18%). DCA in both models showed threshold probability of 15% and 12%, respectively, when compared with 24% in OUTBACK eligibility criteria. Our new nodal staging system and the pretreatment model could differentiate between high-risk and low-risk patients, thus facilitating decisions to provide more aggressive treatment to prevent distant metastases.

PURPOSE: The use of short hydration (SH) to prevent cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity lacks substantive prospective evaluation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of SH, including those with head and neck cancer (HNC) who are at higher risks of mucositis that causes diminished oral intake. METHODS: This phase II randomized noncomparative trial included patients with cancer who were scheduled to receive high-dose cisplatin (≥60 mg/m ² ) in combination with another chemotherapy or concurrently with radiotherapy. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either the SH or conventional hydration (CH) protocol. The primary end point was the proportion of patients with increased serum creatinine (SCr) after undergoing SH. Secondary end points included the severity of SCr elevation, adverse events, cisplatin modification as a result of nephrotoxicity, duration of hospital stay, quality of life (QoL), and cost. RESULTS: Among 100 enrolled patients, 64 and 36 patients underwent the SH and CH protocols, respectively. The median duration of chemotherapy infusion and intravenous hydration were 5.79 and 27.58 hours with SH and CH, respectively. A total of 32.8% and 33.3% of the SH and CH groups, respectively, experienced SCr elevation. Grade 2 SCr elevations were rarely observed in both groups (1.6% in SH, 2.8% in CH). Rate of cisplatin modification was similar between the two groups. Out of 82 patients with HNC, the rate of SCr elevation was comparable for both hydration protocols. The QoL scores were meaningfully higher in the SH group during the second cycle of cisplatin, although the overall direct medical costs were similar. CONCLUSION: The SH protocol is feasible and safe, with a remarkably reduced duration of administration. Thus, SH can be an alternative to CH in the prevention of cisplatin-related nephrotoxicity.