Sik Kwan Chan

The University of Hong Kong | HKU · Department of Clinical Oncology

Introduction: The prognostic role of plasma EBV DNA clearance when intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and the 8th edition of AJCC/UICC TNM Staging Classification are fully implemented remains undeciphered. We investigated if its half-life clearance during radical treatment for non-metastatic NPC was an early prognosticator. Patients and Metho...

Importance Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been approved for use as a second-line therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients who previously received sorafenib. Pembrolizumab has shown substantial antitumor activity and a favorable toxicity profile as a second-line treatment of HCC. However, considering the high cost of pembrolizumab,...

Purpose To propose a refined M1 classification in de novo metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) based on pooled data from two academic institutions. Methods Previously untreated de novo M1 NPC patients prospectively treated at The University of Hong Kong (N = 69) and Fujian Cancer Hospital (N = 114) between 2007 and 2016 were recruited and ran...

Introduction Randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) have investigated different first-line treatments for patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutated non-small-cell lung cancer. However, their efficacy, in particular, the long-term overall survival (OS) benefit in Asian patients with L858R mutation remains unclear. Methods...

Simple Summary Patients with de novo metastatic (M1) nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) at presentation is a heterogeneous group of the population who have a diverse range of survival. However, the current TNM-8 grouping of all these patients into the M1 category is not able to identify the survival differences among them. We aimed to segregate surviva...

Background The predictive value of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the optimal threshold of PD-L1 expression in predicting the efficacy of ICIs in patients with recurrent or metastatic (R/M) NPC. Me...

12045 Background: The survival rate of patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) has significantly improved in the last decade. However, there are only a few studies that have quantified the long-term morbidity and mortality that follow NPC treatment. This study aims to analyze the chronic health conditions, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific...

Objectives To examine the associations between tobacco industry denormalisation (TID) beliefs and support for tobacco endgame policies. Methods A total of 2810 randomly selected adult respondents of population-based tobacco policy-related surveys (2018–2019) were included. TID beliefs (agree vs disagree/unsure) were measured by seven items: tobacc...

Background The strategy of dual blockade of TGF-β and PD-L1 pathways has not been previously tested in platinum-refractory recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal cancer (R/M NPC) patients. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of bintrafusp alfa in refractory R/M NPC patients. Methods In this single-arm, single-centre phase II clini...

Introduction While combination of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and immunotherapy are promising, their efficacy and safety have not been compared with SBRT-alone in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods This retrospective study included 100 patients with nonmetastatic, unresectable HCC in two hospitals. Eligibl...

4124 Background: Sequential transarterial chemoembolization and stereotactic body radiotherapy followed by immunotherapy (IO) (START-FIT) using anti-PD-L1 has demonstrated promising efficacy in locally advanced HCC (laHCC). We aimed to evaluate START-FIT activity using anti-PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 IO backbone. Methods: Adult patients with laHCC not s...

Objective: We sought to identify predictors of delayed viral clearance in cancer patients with asymptomatic COVID-19 when the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants prevailed in Hong Kong. Methods: All cancer patients attending radiation therapy for head and neck malignancies or systemic anti-cancer therapy saved their deep-throat saliva or nasopharyngeal...

Background: The synergy between locoregional therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors has not been investigated as conversion therapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. We aimed to investigate the activity of sequential transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) and stereotactic body radiotherapy followed by avelumab (an anti-PD-L1 drug) for...

Introduction: The public health burden of seasonal influenza is significant, and influenza vaccination is the most effective preventive strategy. Nonetheless, the recommendation of influenza immunization in the pediatric population is still underrepresented. Our work aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of pediatric influenza vaccination with th...

(1) Background: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have explored various primary treatments for individuals diagnosed as having later-stage epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer. Nevertheless, the extent to which such treatments are efficacious, particularly with regard to overall survival (OS) rates of patient...

e18029 Background: Patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal cancer (R/M NPC) who failed platinum-based chemotherapy have poor prognoses. We report the clinical activity and safety of bintrafusp alfa, a first-in-class bifunctional fusion protein composed of the extracellular domain of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-βRII receptor fu...

e21064 Background: First-line epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and their biologically synergistic combinations with other treatments for patients with advanced EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as first-line treatment for EGFR-mutant NSCLC have recently gained considerable attention, in particu...

e16176 Background: Dual-tracer positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose and 11C-acetate is increasingly used in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, considering the high cost of dual-tracer PET/CT, there is a need to assess its value by considering both the efficacy and cost. Method...

4091 Background: Previous studies proposed therapeutic synergy between loco-regional therapies and checkpoint inhibitors in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to study the safety and efficacy of sequential transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) followed by Avelumab in patients with locally advanced HC...

Objective: The treatment landscape of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) has been transforming in the past decade. Abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone (AAP), apalutamide (APA), enzalutamide (ENZA), and docetaxel (Doce) added to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) were shown to outperform ADT alone. However, data on direct comp...

Background We modeled the clinical course of a cohort of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients with no prior cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) using a multistate modeling framework. Patients and methods Data on 2600 patients with DLBCL diagnosed between 2000 and 2018 and had received chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy were obtained fr...

Background Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is endemic in Hong Kong with a skewed geographical and ethnic distribution. We performed an epidemiological study of NPC in Cheung Chau Island, a fishing village with very minimal residential mobility, and compared its demographics and survival with the rest of Hong Kong. Methods NPC data in Cheung Chau an...

Objectives The rapid ageing population of Hong Kong has a high demand on oncology and palliative care (PC) service. This study was the first territory-wide assessment in Hong Kong to assess the palliative service coverage in patients with advanced cancer in the past decade. Methods Cancer deaths of all 43 public hospitals of Hong Kong were screene...

6046 Background: The eighth edition TNM (TNM-8) classified de novo metastatic (metastatic disease at presentation) nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) as M1 without further subdivision. However, survival heterogeneity exists and long-term survival has been observed in a subset of this population. We hypothesize that certain metastatic characteristics co...

Objectives We aimed to compare the economic value of chemotherapy plus anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (anti-EGFR) monoclonal antibody (mAb) against chemotherapy with bevacizumab (Bev, an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor mAb) as first-line treatment in KRAS wild-type (WT), pan-RAS WT and pan-RAS WT left-sided metastatic colorectal canc...

Purpose We compared, in this pooled analysis, the differences in efficacy and safety between three induction chemotherapy regimens including gemcitabine plus cisplatin (GP), cisplatin plus fluorouracil (PF) and cisplatin plus capecitabine (PX) in patients recruited into our two prospective studies for previously untreated locoregionally advanced na...

Background Induction chemotherapy (IC) followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for non-metastatic locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has gained considerable attention. However, the most efficacious IC regimens remain investigational. We aimed to compare the survival benefits of all available IC regimens followed by CCRT...

Background: The IMbrave 150 trial revealed that atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (atezo-bev) improves survival in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (1 year survival rate: 67.2% vs. 54.6%). We assessed the cost-effectiveness of atezo-bev vs. sorafenib as first-line therapy in patients with unresectable HCC from the US payer per...

Background: Integrated palliative care in oncology service has been widely implemented in Hong Kong since 2006. Aim: The study aimed to review its impact on end-of-life outcomes and overall survival (OS) of cancer patients, as well as its utilization of health care resources in the past 10 years. Design: Cancer deaths of all 43 public hospitals o...

Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is endemic in Hong Kong with a skewed geographical and ethnic distribution. We performed an epidemiological study of NPC in Cheung Chau Island, a fishing village with very minimal residential mobility, and compared its demographics and survival with the rest of Hong Kong. Methods: NPC data in Cheung Chau a...

6524 Background: The prognosis of de novo previously untreated metastatic (M1) nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) at diagnosis is poor, and the role of consolidative intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to the primary tumor and the neck following first-line palliative chemotherapy remains unknown. We report a phase II study of consolidative IMR...

Background We hypothesized that radiation-induced lymphopenia could be predicted by the effective dose to the circulating immune cells (EDIC) in advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) treated with trimodality therapy according to the Dutch CROSS trial regimen. To test this hypothesis, we examined the effect of EDIC on the degree of lymp...

Background Both Western and Chinese medicine, despite different in methods and systems, are well accepted in Hong Kong. According to a survey on cancer patients in Hong Kong conducted by the Hong Kong Baptist University in 2009, 57% of cancer patients used at least one form of Chinese Medicine therapy. Among those who were on chemotherapy, 60% of t...

Background We aim at subdividing M1 stage to better predict survival of metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients whose outcomes could vary greatly. Methods Patients with previously untreated metastatic NPC (training cohort) were recruited prospectively from 2007 to 2018 and were re-staged based on 8th edition of American Joint Committee...

Background: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in endemic regions may have undetectable plasma EBV DNA. Methods: We prospectively recruited 518 patients with non-metastatic NPC and measured their pre-treatment plasma EBV DNA. The stage distribution and prognosis between pre-treatment plasma EBV DNA-negative (0-20...

Chinese medicine therapies in cancer treatment are very common in the East. Although it is usually classified as a form of complementary and alternative therapy in the West, Chinese medicine is an independent medical profession in Hong Kong and mainland China. It has a different perspective in understanding health and diseases compared with Western...

The eighth edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) stage classification (TNM) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) was launched. It remains unknown if incorporation of nonanatomic factors into the stage classification would better predict survival. We prospectively recruited 518 patients...