Application of Immune-checkpoint Inhibitors in Recurrent/Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is mainly associated with Epstein-Barr virus(EBV) infection. The treatment of early nasopharyngeal carcinoma has a good prognosis, but the treatment options for recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma are limited and the prognosis is poor. In recent years, there have been extensive studies on immunotherapy in advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, among which immune-checkpoint inhibitors are effective and causing clinical concern. Programmed death-ligand 1 expression status, tumor mutation burden and circulating EBV-DNA level may be biomarkers for predicting the efficacy of immune-checkpoint inhibitors. The applications of immune-checkpoint inhibitors in recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma will be reviewed in this article.