Clinical trial · Interventional
Pretreatment With HCQ Before Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy in Advanced NPC Patients
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Dormant cancer cells that survive anti-cancer therapy can lead to cancer recurrence and disseminated metastases that prove fatal in most cases. Recently, specific dormant polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCC) have drawn the investigators' attention because of their association with the clinical risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) recurrence, as demonstrated by previous clinical data. In study, the investigators report the biological properties of PGCC, and reveal that autophagy is a critical mechanism of PGCC induction. Moreover, pharmacological inhibition of autophagy greatly impaired PGCC formation, significantly suppressing metastasis and improving survival in a mouse model. Mechanistically, chemotherapeutic drugs partly damaged mitochondria, and activated autophagy to promote PGCC formation. High numbers of PGCCs correlated with shorter recurrence time and worse survival outcomes in NPC patients. Collectively, these findings suggest a therapeutic approach of targeting dormant PGCCs in cancer. Pretreatment with an autophagy inhibitor (HCQ) before chemotherapy and radiotherapy could prevent formation of therapy-induced dormant polyploid giant cancer cells, thereby reducing recurrence and metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Conditions
Conditions (1)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma | Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma | ONTOLOGY_EXACT | 0.98 |
Interventions
Interventions (2)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| HCQ | Drug | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Placebo | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Pretreatment with an autophagy inhibitor (HCQ) before chemotherapy and radiotherapy
- description
- Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), is used one day before chemotherapy and radiotherapy, 400-600mg, oral tablet, once. During chemotherapy and radiotherapy, HCQ maintenance dose is 200-400mg daily.
- interventionNames
- Drug: HCQ
- type
- PLACEBO_COMPARATOR
- label
- Receive placebo before and during chemotherapy and radiotherapy
- description
- Placebos are used one day before chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and during the therapy.
- interventionNames
- Other: Placebo
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Recurrence and metastasis
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 20 Years
- Maximum age
- 70 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Clinical diagnosis of NPC. * Have not received any cancer therapies * Must provide informed consent Exclusion Criteria: * With metastasis before the first treatment.
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available