Nomogram-aided individual induction chemotherapy regimen selection in advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Objective: We undertook this study to clarify how TPF, TP and PF induction chemotherapy (IC) regimens benefit for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients with different risk of disease progression. Materials and Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed, stage III-IVA NPC were included. A quantitative nomogram was built using the independent prognostic factors identified for disease-free survival (DFS). Patients were stratified into low-risk and high-risk groups by the nomogram. Survival outcomes and toxicities between different IC regimens were compared. Results: In total, 1647 (41.0%), 1123 (28.0%) and 1242 (31.0%) patients received TPF, PF and TP regimen, respectively. Consequently, 2253 (56.2%) patients were clarified as low-risk group and the other 1759 (43.8%) as high-risk group. Survival outcomes did not significantly differ between TPF, PF and TP regimens within the low-risk group. However, TPF was associated with significantly improved 3-year DFS (76.2% vs. 67.5% vs. 68.3%), overall survival (88.3% vs. 84.1% vs. 83.9%), distant metastasis-free survival (81.9% vs. 75.0% vs. 77.4%) and locoregional relapse-free survival (92.0% vs. 87.5% vs. 86.9%; all P < 0.05) compared with PF and TP within high-risk group. Multivariate analysis also confirmed these findings. Toxicity analysis showed that TP regimen has the highest percentage of grade 3-5 hematologic toxicities while PF regimen achieved the lowest percentages of overall grade 3-5 adverse events. Conclusions: Patients with high risk should receive TPF for better efficacy and PF may be a better choice for low risk patients with regard to less grade 3-5 toxicities.