CASE REPORT article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Immunotherapy in Cancer Therapy and Its ChallengesView all 7 articles
Successful sequential chemo-immunotherapy and reduced-volume brachytherapy for bulky residual cervical tumor after external beam radiotherapy: two case reports
Provisionally accepted
- Yunnan Cancer Hospital, Kunming, China
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Background: Bulky residual tumor post external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) is a great technique challenge for brachytherapy (BT) and significant prognostic risk factor in locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC). The application of chemotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitor has little been explored to reduce tumor volume (TV) during the completion of EBRT and the start of BT. Case description: We present two stage IIIC1r cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients with residual tumor larger than 5 cm post-EBRT. Patient characteristics, examination findings, laboratory and image data, treatment response, and adverse events were recorded. After sequential treatment with albumin-bound paclitaxel plus cisplatin combine with Zimberelimab, patients achieved significant TV reduction and underwent reduced-volume BT. Neither patient experienced any relapse at the 36-month follow-up and 25-month follow-up. Conclusion: Sequential chemo-immunotherapy followed by reduced-volume BT may be an alternative option for patients with bulky residual disease post-EBRT. More clinical data are needed to verify the effectiveness of the combined regimens.
Keywords: Locally advanced cervical cancer, bulky residual tumor, Chemo-immunotherapy, reduced-volume brachytherapy, case report
Received: 17 Aug 2025; Accepted: 30 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Ai, Yu, Li, Jiang, Zhao, Li and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lan Zhang, zhanglan@kmmu.edu.cn
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