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CASE REPORT article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1523316
This article is part of the Research Topic The Application of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Combined with Chemotherapy in Tumor Immunotherapy View all 3 articles

Combination chemotherapy with sintilimab for treatment of a male patient with primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma: a case report and literature review

Provisionally accepted
Xiaojing Liang Xiaojing Liang 1Guoqing XU Guoqing XU 2*Jisong Zhang Jisong Zhang 1*Li Xu Li Xu 1*Liangliang Dong Liangliang Dong 1*Xiaoyue Wang Xiaoyue Wang 1*Weidong Han Weidong Han 3*Enguo Chen Enguo Chen 1*
  • 1 Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
  • 2 Zhejiang University Sir Run Run Shaw Alaer Hospital, Xinjiang, China
  • 3 Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma (PPC) is an extremely rare malignant cancer in men with no clinical guidelines for the treatment. Cytotoxic chemotherapy has a limited effect on the prognosis of PPC. Recently, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) show great promising treatment effectiveness. Literature review reveals that combination of chemotherapy and ICIs could prolong the survival time of PPC patients. Herein, we report a 67-year-old man with cough, expectoration and blood in sputum, presenting with mass in lower lobe of right lung. The hematoxylin and eosin stain and immunohistochemical profile of primary lesion showed features of choriocarcinoma, accompanying with elevations in serum HCG levels. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression was positive (70%) in the 22C3 assay. He received a combination of cisplatin, etoposide, paclitaxel and sintilimab. Four months after the treatment began, chest computed tomography (CT) showed significant mass reduction. Therefore, ICIs may be a promising therapy option for PPC patient.

    Keywords: Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma, chemotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, programmed death-ligand 1, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin

    Received: 05 Nov 2024; Accepted: 02 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Liang, XU, Zhang, Xu, Dong, Wang, Han and Chen. 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:
    Guoqing XU, Zhejiang University Sir Run Run Shaw Alaer Hospital, Xinjiang, China
    Jisong Zhang, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Li Xu, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Liangliang Dong, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Xiaoyue Wang, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Weidong Han, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, 310022, Zhejiang, China
    Enguo Chen, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

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