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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Head and Neck Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1521762
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in the Treatment of Nasopharyngeal Cancer View all articles

Antiangiogenic therapy with recombinant human endostatin may improve blood perfusion of cervical node with necrosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients: A preliminary study by using contrast-enhanced ultrasound

Provisionally accepted
Zhendong Yang Zhendong Yang Huimin Xiao Huimin Xiao Xigui Li Xigui Li Zhuxin Wei Zhuxin Wei Min Kang Min Kang Rensheng Wang Rensheng Wang Jianyuan Huang Jianyuan Huang *
  • First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China

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

    The cervical node with necrosis (CNN) is an important poor prognostic factor for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Tumor microenvironment of the CNN is with severely insufficient blood perfusion, thus leading to hypoxia and reducing the effect of radiotherapy (RT) and chemotherapy. By using contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) as a monitoring method, we conducted this study to appraise whether antiangiogenic therapy (AT) with recombinant human endostatin (RHES) may improve blood perfusion of the CNN.Fifteen NPC patients with CNN were enrolled and underwent CEUS the day before and day 5 after AT with RHES initiation, respectively. By analyzing the variations of CEUS parameters of CNN, such as peak intensity (PI), time to peak (TTP) and mean transit time (MTT) at different time points, we evaluate the impact of AT with RHES on blood perfusion of CNN.The PI of day 5 after AT was significantly enhanced than PI of the day before AT (-44.94±4.72 [dB] vs. -50.33±6.85 [dB], P<0.001). The TTP of day 5 after AT got dramatically shorter than TTP of the day before AT (19.48±3.63[Sec] vs. 24.19±6.93 [Sec], P=0.031). The MTT of day 5 after AT became obviously shorter than MTT of the day before AT (28.08±3.03[Sec] vs. 33.76±6.20[Sec], P=0.001).These results revealed that the blood volume and the blood flow velocity in the microvessels of the CNN increased after AT, indicating that AT with RHES may improve blood perfusion in CNN of NPC, thus providing valuable insights for the clinical application of AT combined with RT and/or chemotherapy in NPC patients with CNN. Moreover, CEUS as a noninvasive and real-time monitoring method, may be suitable for clinically evaluating tumor blood perfusion changes.

    Keywords: antiangiogenic therapy, Blood perfusion, contrast-enhanced ultrasound, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Cervical node with necrosis

    Received: 02 Nov 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Xiao, Li, Wei, Kang, Wang and Huang. 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: Jianyuan Huang, First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China

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