Treatment Outcomes
The prognosis of NUT patients is generally poor, and the response to initial treatment was only 21 (54%) of patient having a complete or partial response, most people received multimodality therapy. Three (9%) patients with primary site in the lung underwent initial chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy, among whom two had partial responses and one had stable disease at first but finally died no matter the expression of PD-L1,the first two patients were treated with paclitaxel liposome, cisplatin combined with sintilimab and etoposide, carboplatin combined with nivolumab respectively, and the efficacy evaluation was PR every two cycles. However, the last patient achieved SD with one cycle of paclitaxel liposome, nedaplatin combined with tislelizumab, followed six cycles of bevacizumab combined with paclitaxel and cisplatin, which reduced the primary tumor from 9cm to 3.4cm, and continued with lung radiation therapy only, but also developed abdominal metastasis, so instead of radiation, and the adjustment plan was gemcitabine hydrochloride, nedaplatin and anlotinib with durvalumab, but the patient died after two cycles due to the inability to effectively control the tumor, and the overall survival time was nine months. This seems to prove that early chemotherapy combination of immunotherapy can effectively control tumor progression and even prolong PFS.
whereas the other five patients received chemotherapy only, and the response was stable, but it was progressing rapidly. Two patients with primary lung disease received paclitarel with cisplatin only or etoposide with cisplatin, one of which was combined with bevacizumab, but had an overall survival of 4–5 months. The other two patients were 8 and 20 years old and the primary site was tonsil and mediastinum. In patients with mediastinal tumor, the tumor reached stability after 6 cycles of alternating application of doxorubicina, cyclophosphamide combined with vindesil sulfate and ifosfamide combined with etoposide, but the tumor progressed after 3 cycles of irinotecan combined with anlotinib. In patients with primary tonsil disease, the tumor remained under control after alternating 12 cycles of cyclophosphamide, cisplatin combined with pirarubicin and ifosfamide combined with etoposide. The last patient initially diagnosed as lung squamous cell carcinoma, two cycles of paclitaxel combinend with paraplatin were administered, followed by surgery, and the postoperative pathology indicated NUT. After 4 cycles of gemcitabine combined with cisplatin, the tumor progressed. Chemotherapy alone is less effective, but patients can benefit from alternating chemotherapy regiments, and the most impotent is that the incidence of nut was low, pathology in most hospitals were not used as a routine examination item, resulting in misdiagnosis and further delay in treatment.
However, only one male patient with primary lung tumor, the assessed efficacy was PR after 4 cycles of chemotherapy with paclitaxel combined with cisplatin, followed by 28 times of radiotherapy, and radiotherapy was performed on the lung and metastatic site: left gastric lymph node, followed by 2 cycles of chemotherapy with the original regimen. To our surprised, the tumor recurred 10 months after oral anlotinib monotherapy, which suggests that radiotherapy for primary and metastatic tumors may be beneficial for survival.
Radical chemotherapy combined with surgery was shown to be beneficial in delaying tumor recurrence in three patients. The ages of three patients were 27, 27, and 19 years old, respectively. The primary tumors were located in the lungs, sinuses, and vulva. The first patient had tumor recurrence after 17 cycles of alternating vindesine sulfate, epirubicin hydrochloride combined with cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide combined with etoposide regimens after surgery. The second patient was evaluated as PR after 2 cycles of albumin paclitaxel combined with cisplatin, and then underwent surgery. Currently, the tumor is still in a stable state 8 months after surgery. After the third patient underwent surgery, alternating application of cisplatin, vincristine sulfate combined with pirarubicin hydrochloride and cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine sulfate combined with pirarubicin hydrochloride for 10 cycles resulted in a stable reduction in the size of the inguinal lymph node metastasis from 17mm to 6mm. The above suggests that NUT patients still need early surgical treatment.
To our surprised, two patients (6%) received chemotherapy combined with surgery and sintilimab maintenance therapy, however the outcome was quite different. A 34-year-old patient with a primary submandibular tumor of about 2.4*1.6cm before surgery, accompanied by lymph node metastasis in the upper neck, had a tumor recurrence of about 2.4*1.4cm in a half month after surgery. The tumor remained uncontrolled after 4 cycles of alternating cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin hydrochloride liposome combined with vindesine sulfate and ifosfamide combined with etoposide, and was re-operated after 6 cycles of paclitaxel, cisplatin, sintilimab combined with anlotinib. During the postoperative maintenance treatment with sintilimab, the tumor has reached a stable state. However, another 53-year-old male patient with primary lung tumor was treated with paclitaxel combined with cisplatin for two cycles, the tumor increased, forced surgery, and given nedaplatin, gemcitabine hydrochloride combined with sintilimab for one cycle, regrettably the patient died, with an overall survival of about 5 months.
Surgery in combination with chemotherapy and radiotherapy seems to benefit patients' survival. The 4 patients with NUT were 47,39,67 and 38, and the primary sites were nasal cavity, nasal cavity, maxillary sinus and frontal sinus, respectively. One of the patients had a recurrence soon after surgery, and was treated with concurrent chemotherapy and oral chidamide maintenance treatment, and now the tumor was in a stable state. Similar to the other patient, the tumor remained stable after surgery by oral administration of chidamide combined with chemoradiotherapy. Another female patient was diagnosed with NUT only when she recurred 2 years after chemoradiotherapy after the malignant transformation of nasal papilloma. She was treated with carboplatin combined with paclitaxel for 2 cycles. So far, the tumor has been stable. Unfortunately, a 38-year-old female patient underwent chemotherapy for 3 cycles after surgery, followed by radiotherapy. Later, the tumor recurred and received radiotherapy again, but she suddenly died of unconsciousness
Patients with primary tumors located in the lung were treated with paclitaxel combined with carboplatin for 6 cycles and then treated with 25 radiotherapy for significant tumor shrinkage. The tumors recurred 7 months later and were treated again with paclitaxel, nedaplatin, tislelizumab combined with anlotinib for 4 cycles, and the tumor remained stable now. Another patient at the same site received simultaneous chemoradiotherapy, specifically radiotherapy 25 times, and one cycle of paclitaxel, carboplatin, tislelizumab combined with bevacizumab resulted in tumor shrinkage, unfortunately, the patient died of myelosuppression. Chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy and immunotherapy may be beneficial for the treatment of tumor.
Surprisingly, the prognosis for patients after surgery combined with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy is not ideal. A patient with primary thyroid disease was treated with palliative surgery, postoperative radiotherapy, and chemotherapy with nivolumab, paclitaxel combined with anlotinib after 2 cycles, but the tumor shrank after 3 cycles. The treatment effect of this case was not ideal, and we considered that palliative surgery could not benefit the survival of the patient. The second patient was 9 years old, and the primary tumor site was the right maxillary sinus. Radical radiotherapy was followed by 2 cycles of lobaplatin chemotherapy, the evaluated efficacy was PR. After 2 cycles of chemotherapy with paclitaxel, lobaplatin combined with nimtotuzumab, surgery was performed, and the tumor recurred after surgery, unfortunately, we did not track the time from surgery to recurrence. The last 5-year-old patient, whose primary site was the maxillary sinus, was treated with 6 cycles of paclitaxel, etoposide combined with cisplatin after surgery, followed by radiotherapy, and concurrent immunotherapy. The patient died due to infection, and the overall survival was 9 months. The patient was MIER1-NUTM1 fusion, which was the reason for the poor treatment effect of the patient.
A 13-year-old patient with primary nasal cavity tumor was treated with 30 radiotherapy after surgery, followed by maintenance therapy with toripalizumab, and is now in a stable state. Maintenance of immunotherapy can improve the survival of patients
In addition, there were 4 patients who received oral BET inhibitors, which quickly controlled the tumor, but had high blood toxicity, such as thrombocytopenia that caused the patient to be intolerant.
To sum up, we concluded that the alternative application of different chemotherapy regimen or combination of immunotherapy on the basis of chemotherapy can effectively control the tumor, and combination of radiotherapy on the basis of chemotherapy can benefit the survival of patients, which is the icing on the cake. Radical surgery can help keep the tumor in a stable state and even delay the recurrence of the tumor. Radical surgery combined with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy can benefit the survival of patients. However, palliative surgery does not benefit patients, either in tumor control or in survival, and immune drugs may be used to maintain treatment. MIER1-NUTM1 gene fusion leads to more malignant tumors. BET inhibitors can be very effective in tumor control and can even change the status quo of NUT treatment. We call on hospital pathology departments to establish routine NUT testing programs to reduce the rate of misdiagnosis. Detailed patient data are shown in Table 2.