Treatment for locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LR-NPC) is challenging. Carbon-ion radiotherapy appeared to be an effective treatment for this group of patients, and has substantially improved the 2-year overall survival (OS) to approximately 85%, compared to photon-based intensity-modulated radiotherapy. However, a group of the patients may still develop disease progression after CIRT, and the 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) was approximately 45%-50%. Camrelizumab, a programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor, has been demonstrated that it is effective in the recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma; however, the role of camrelizumab in concurrence with radiotherapy, especially CIRT, for LR-NPC is not clear. The purpose of this phase 2 clinical trial is to compare the efficacy of CIRT plus camrelizumab and CIRT alone in the treatment of LR-NPC. Eligible participants will be randomized (1:1) to 1) CIRT alone group (control group); 2) CIRT plus camrelizumab group (experimental group). The primary endpoint is progression-free survival. Secondary endpoints include overall survival (OS), local progression-free survival (LPFS), regional progression-free survival (RPFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and toxicities. All efficacy analyses are conducted in the intention-to-treat population, and the safety population include only patients who receive their randomly assigned treatment.
The purpose of this trial is to examine the role of camrezlizumab in addition to carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT) for patients with locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma. According to the plan, a total of 146 patients will be recruited and randomized into: 1) CIRT alone group (control group); 2) CIRT plus camrelizumab group (experimental group).