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5 treatment settings, 4 with more than one named option. Each section lays out the options the standard of care names, what each is for, the trials behind them with their recorded results, the side effects and cautions on record, and questions to ask. Built from the cancer page's standard-of-care rows; nothing here is advice for your case.
MRI of the nasopharynx and neck, PET-CT or CT of chest and abdomen with bone scan, plasma EBV DNA, dental and audiological assessment.
MRI uses a strong magnet and radio waves, with no ionising radiation, to picture soft tissue in finer contrast than CT, so it is the standard scan for brain tumours, prostate, rectal cancer staging, liver lesions and breast screening in high-risk women. It is slow, expensive and blurred by movement.
PET and CT in one machine, so hot spots on the PET are pinned to exact locations on the CT.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Induction gemcitabine and cisplatin for three cycles followed by intensity-modulated radiotherapy (70 Gy) with concurrent cisplatin; TPF induction as an alternative.
Gemcitabine plus cisplatin has been the chemotherapy backbone for bile duct cancer since 2010 and is now given with immunotherapy.
Cisplatin is the original platinum chemotherapy, discovered by accident in 1965; it cures testicular cancer and makes radiation work better in cervical and head and neck cancer.
IMRT and IGRT shape the radiation beam to the tumour's outline from multiple angles and check the patient's position with a scan before every session, so surrounding organs receive less dose. Fewer, larger doses are now standard in breast and prostate cancer, but a low-dose bath still spreads across normal tissue.
Radiation using protons, which stop inside the tumour instead of passing through, so tissue behind it gets no dose.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Metronomic capecitabine for one year in high-risk patients; EBV DNA-directed adjuvant therapy in trials (NRG-HN001).
Capecitabine (Xeloda) is a tablet form of the chemotherapy fluorouracil. It is a backbone of treatment for bowel cancer and a standard option in advanced breast cancer.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
No side-effect rates or interaction flags are recorded for these options yet. The side-effect lookup and interaction checker cover the products that have them.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
PD-1 antibody (sintilimab in CONTINUUM; toripalimab and camrelizumab in trials) added to induction and chemoradiotherapy in high-risk disease, adopted in China.
Camrelizumab is Jiangsu Hengrui's humanised PD-1 antibody, approved in China for oesophageal, liver and lung cancer but not in the US, where its liver cancer combination with rivoceranib drew complete response letters in 2024 and 2025 over manufacturing and inspection issues. Its signature side effect is reactive cutaneous capillary endothelial proliferation, a skin reaction seen in most patients.
A Chinese-developed PD-1 blocker that became the first immunotherapy approved in the US for nasopharyngeal cancer.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors are antibodies against CTLA-4, PD-1 or PD-L1 that release the brakes on T cells so they attack the cancer. They are approved in more than 20 tumour types and produce lasting, sometimes curative responses that chemotherapy rarely does, but most patients do not respond and autoimmune side effects are the cost.
No headline result recorded yet.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Plasma EBV DNA, MRI and nasopharyngoscopy; management of xerostomia, hearing loss, hypothyroidism and hypopituitarism.
MRI uses a strong magnet and radio waves, with no ionising radiation, to picture soft tissue in finer contrast than CT, so it is the standard scan for brain tumours, prostate, rectal cancer staging, liver lesions and breast screening in high-risk women. It is slow, expensive and blurred by movement.
Radiotherapy to the head and neck can permanently dry the mouth. A randomised trial in the United States and China found that acupuncture given during radiotherapy reduced dry mouth a year later compared with standard care, an effect that needs confirming.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.