Abstract:
Background Locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) has become one of the most challenging clinical problems in the treatment of cervical cancer worldwide due to the moderate efficacy of conventional treatment and the high risk of recurrence and metastasis. Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients with LACC staged ⅠB3, ⅡA2, ⅡB, and Ⅲ C1/2r who were admitted to the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from August 2022 to June 2025 and received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) combined with immunotherapy. The short clinical outcomes, follow-up and adverse events were analyzed. The relationship between different factors and short-term efficacy after neoadjuvant therapy was analyzed using univariate analysis, and the impact of different factors on patient survival was assessed by employing Kaplan-Meier survival curves and the Log-rank test. Results A total of 94 patients were included, with a mean age of (51.28 ± 10.90) years. All patients received 1 to 3 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy combining immunotherapy with paclitaxel-based and platinum-based regimens. Of the 94 patients, 24 cases (25.5%) showed complete response (CR), 58 cases (61.7%) achieved partial remission (PR), and 12 cases (12.8%) achieved stable disease (SD). The objective response rate (ORR) was 87.2%, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 100%. Totally 72 (76.6%) patients underwent surgery, and among them 17 (23.6%) pathological CR were identified. Treatment-related adverse events were reported in 80 patients (85.1%). No specific clinicopathological factor emerged as a significant predictor of short clinical outcomes in univariable analysis. The medium follow-up of the cohort was 14 months, the 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 89% and the 3-year overall survival rate (OS) was 97%. The medium PFS and medium OS were not reached. The DFS of the PD-1 group was higher than that of the PD-L1/CTLA-4 group (90.9% vs 87.5%, P=0.039). The DFS of the CR/PR group was higher than that of the SD group (94.8% vs 58.3%, P=0.001). Grade 1-2 TRAEs occurred in 66.0% of the patients. Grade 3-4 TRAEs occurred in 23.4% of the patients. IrAEs occurred in 21.3% of the patients. No treatment-related deaths occurred. The treatment was well-tolerated among patients. Conclusion Neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy showed promising antitumour activity and a manageable adverse event profile in patients with LACC.