Induction chemotherapy is often used preoperatively to reduce the size, extent, or stage of the tumor, thereby making the surgery more likely to be successful. However, there are still many patients with marginal recurrence after induction chemotherapy combined with surgery. With the progress of treatment methods, high efficient and low toxicity adjuvant immunotherapy is helpful to kill the minimal residual tumor lesions. Hence, whether complete resection is still necessary for areas with tumor regression after induction chemotherapy needs further investigation. Because of the organs at risk around the nasopharynx, any treatment strategy that can reduce the scope of tumor resection is of great significance. Therefore, by comparing reduced-target resection and full-target resection after induction chemotherapy, we aim to investigate whether reduced-target resection after induction chemotherapy is not inferior to full-target resection, but it greatly reduces the risk and difficulty of surgery. Even if marginal recurrence occurs after reduced-target resection, early intervention can still be performed through closely follow-up, without affecting the overall survival of patients.~When patients enroll this study, GTV-pre-IC (Gross Tumor Volume before induction chemotherapy) was defined according to the magentic resonance imaging before induction chemotherapy and GTV-post-IC (Gross Tumor Volume after induction chemotherapy) defined according to the magentic resonance imaging after induction chemotherapy. The pSTV-pre-IC (planing Surgical Tumor Volume before induction chemotherapy) and pSTV-post-IC (planing Surgical Tumor Volume after induction chemotherapy) were the GTV-pre-IC and GTV-post-IC plus an additional 0.5-1.0 cm peripheral mucosa margin and a 2-3 mm basal margin on the surface skull base. Patiens in experiment group will receive reduced-target resection, which resection extension is according to pSTV-post-IC. While patients in control group will receive full-target resection, which is according to pSTV-pre-IC. After surgery, the acturial resection area was defined as aSTV, which would be used for quality control. If aSTV does not cover pSTV, patients will be excluded in per-protocol set.
The goal of this clinical trial is to compare efficacy of two different resection extension in patients with resectable recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma after induction chemotherapy. The main question it aims to answer is that whether tumor regress areas after induction chemotherapy required complete resection. Patients will be randomly assigned to receive reduced-target resection or full-target resection after induction chemotherapy. Researchers will compare these two groups to see if the efficacy of reduced-target resection is not inferior to full-target resection.