Case Report

Boosting the abscopal effect with chemoradiotherapy/immunotherapy combination in metastatic cervical cancer: a case report

Department of Radiation & Medical Oncology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

Department of Radiation & Medical Oncology, Central Hospital of Xianning City, Tongji Xianning Hospital of Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Xianning, 437000, China

‡Authors contributed equally

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Min Chen‡

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4411-5574

Department of Radiation & Medical Oncology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

‡Authors contributed equally

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Qingming Xiang

Department of Radiation & Medical Oncology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

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Shaoxing Sun

Department of Radiation & Medical Oncology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

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Hong Cao

Department of Pathology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

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Conghua Xie

*Author for correspondence:

E-mail Address: chxie_65@whu.edu.cn

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6623-9864

Department of Radiation & Medical Oncology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

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Hui Qiu

**Author for correspondence:

E-mail Address: qiuhuiznyy@whu.edu.cn

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2923-1019

Department of Radiation & Medical Oncology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

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Published Online:25 Jul 2023https://doi.org/10.2217/imt-2022-0044

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Abstract

The prognosis for patients with distant-organ metastatic cervical cancer (CC) is poor owing to the lack of effective treatment modalities. We present a case of CC with lung metastasis that achieved partial remission of the cervical mass after two cycles of chemotherapy, while the pulmonary nodules remained stable. Moreover, the level of the tumor marker squamous cell carcinoma antigen was slightly higher than before. The patient was recommended to receive pelvic concurrent chemoradiotherapy combined with camrelizumab. Remarkably, after undergoing 16 cycles of immunotherapy, the patient’s primary cervical mass and pulmonary nodules were in complete remission, and the tumor marker had returned to normal levels. This inspiring case demonstrates that a combination of chemo-/radio-/immunotherapy can be effective in treating lung metastatic CC and can also enhance the abscopal effect.

Plain language summary

Checkpoint inhibitors are a type of treatment for cancer. They can be used alone or together with chemotherapy, and they have recently been approved for the treatment of advanced and recurrent cervical cancer. This article looks at how these checkpoint inhibitors can be used with another treatment called chemoradiotherapy. This treatment combines chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This is to see whether using checkpoint inhibitors with chemoradiotherapy can help even more. Here we report a patient with cervical cancer that had spread to the lungs. They received treatment with chemotherapy, radiation therapy and checkpoint inhibitors. The good news is that the cancer went away completely after this treatment. The patient continued to receive checkpoint inhibitors to keep the cancer from coming back. It has been 26 months, and the patient is still cancer-free. This case shows that using checkpoint inhibitors with chemoradiotherapy can be a very effective treatment for cervical cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

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Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest; •• of considerable interest

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Vol. 15, No. 15

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History

Received 28 February 2022

Accepted 6 July 2023

Published online 25 July 2023

Published in print October 2023

Information

Keywords

Author contributions

Conceptualization: W Zhang, M Chen. Supervision: W Zhang, M Chen. Writing (original draft preparation): W Zhang. Writing (review and editing): W Zhang, M Chen, Q Xiang, S Sun, H Cao. Validation: C Xie, H Qiu. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained verbal and written informed consent from the patient/patients for the inclusion of their medical and treatment history within this case report.

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