Patients and patient workup
This study was derived from 269 patients who were diagnosed with HPSCC
at our center between August 2008 and October 2020. 83 patients who
received IC followed by CCRT (n=52) or IC followed by RT alone (n=31)
were included after exclusions (Supplementary Figure 1). All patients
underwent disease staging using the eighth edition of the American Joint
Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system.13
The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the Beijing
Cancer Hospital and Institute, Peking University School of Oncology
(approval number: 2019YJZ76). All patients were provided written
informed consent for the treatment.