Oncolytic virus H101 increases the effectiveness of chemotherapy on lymph node metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its possible mechanism

Objective: To observe the effectiveness of oncolytic virus H101 combined with chemotherapy in treatment of patients with lymph node metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and to discuss the related mechanism. Methods: Sixty-two biopsy-confirmed specimens of nasopharyngeal carcinoma from patients who received nasopharyngeal endoscopy in the Tumor Hospital Affiliated to Guangxi Medical University were randomly divided into 2 groups: experimental group (n = 30, including II [7], III [15], and IVa [8]; combined chemotherapy with H101 and cisplatin) and the control group (n = 32, including H [8], III [15], and IVa [9]; chemotherapy with cisplatin alone). Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of P16 and nm23 protein and its relationship with the effectiveness of H101 was analysed. Results: The overall effective rate for cervical lymph node metastasis was 83.3% in the experiment group and 43.8% in the control group (P < 0.01). Expression rates of P16 and nm23 protein in the experiment group were 30.0% and 83.3%, respectively. The effective rate was 95.2% in patient positive of P16 protein and 55.6% in those negative of P16 protein(P < 0.01); and the numbers for nm23 protein were 84.0% and 80.0%, with no significant difference. Conclusion: Oncolytic virus H101 combined with chemotherapy can improve the prognosis of lymph node metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and the disordered p16 expression might be related to the mechanism of H101 action.