ArticleInvestigational new drugs2023
Early on-treatment C-reactive protein and its kinetics predict survival and response in recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer patients receiving first-line pembrolizumab.
Article in Investigational new drugs, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Inflammatory markers as prognostic markers in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Pooled it
- Integrating C-reactive protein flare and early MRI dynamics for enhanced prediction of immunotherapy response.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2025Article
- Blood-Based Inflammatory Markers Are Associated with Treatment Outcomes in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Receiving Anti-PD-1 Therapy: CRP as a Superior Predictive Marker.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Adverse event profile of five anti head and neck squamous cell carcinoma drugs: a descriptive analysis from WHO-VigiAccess.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Prognostic Value of Inflammatory Indices in Papillary Gastric Carcinoma with Different Proportions of Papillary Components.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Article
- Article
- Clinical significance of early kinetics of C‑reactive protein in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma treated with pembrolizumab: Flare response and baseline levels predict oncological outcomes.Oncology letters · 2024Article
- Pretreatment neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio as a prognostic factor in recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer treated with pembrolizumab.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Integrative Oncology Approaches to Supporting Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment of Solid Tumours.Current oncology reports · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeFirst-line immune checkpoint blockade has improved the prognosis of recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC), but response rates remain low. In this study, we aimed to investigate the prognostic value of CRP and its early kinetics to predict response and survival in R/M HNSCC.
methodsA total of 87 patients who received first-line pembrolizumab for R/M HNSCC were analyzed. Three-fold cross-validation was used to estimate cut-off points of CRP at baseline and on-treatment (day 40 ± 10). Treatment response and survival were analyzed according to early CRP kinetics. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was used as a benchmark for the prognostic performance of CRP.
resultsOn-treatment CRP below 2 mg/dl, 4x the upper limit of normal (ULN), was associated with increased overall survival (OS), while on-treatment CRP below 3 mg/dl (6x ULN) was correlated with a higher disease control rate (DCR) and increased progression-free survival (PFS). CRP flare-responders and CRP responders showed a higher DCR and longer PFS than CRP non-responders. An NLR above 6 was a negative prognosticator for progression. In multivariable analysis, on-treatment CRP prevailed as the only significant prognosticator for OS (HR: 4.97, CI95%: 2.18-11.32, p < 0.001) and PFS (HR: 2.07, CI95%: 1.07-3.99, p = 0.030).
conclusionOn-treatment CRP was identified as a prognostic biomarker for objective response and survival in R/M HNSCC patients receiving first-line pembrolizumab and could be easily incorporated into clinical practice as a widely available and cost-effective biomarker.
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