Dr. Liu has been dedicated to the clinical and translational research of Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) for over ten years. His work includes a phase 3 trial demonstrating the efficacy of metronomic capecitabine in locoregionally-advanced NPC(Lancet2021). Dr. Liu believes another “failed” phase 2 trial published by him is of equal importance to theLancetpaper, which found that antiangiogenesis treatment after high dose radiation might be associated with necrosis in NPC (IJROBP2022). Dr. Liu has also  coauthored the ASCO 2020 Educational Book entitled “Recent Advances in the Development of Biomarkers and Chemoradiotherapeutic Approaches for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma”. He was invited to join the NCI clinical trials planning meeting on NPC in 2018. 

His current interest is mainly in the combination of immunotherapy and radiation oncology in NPC. As Sub-PI, he is running two multicenter phase 3 trials adding PD-1 inhibition to induction chemotherapy and concurrent chemoradiation in NPC (nct03427827 and 03700476). These two clinical trials have been completed and the results are expected to be published in 2023 and 2024.

Patient Care Philosophy: My mom passed away due to rectal cancer after a painful journey. Thus, I understand the feeling of patients and relatives. I try my best to make decisions together with patients and align the treatment with every individual patient’s preferences.

The combination of immunotherapy and radiotherapy, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, head and neck cancer.

MD Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University (2011)
MS Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Oncology (2014)
PhD Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Oncology (2020)

2. Liu Xu, et al. Necrosis in a Biomarker-driven, Phase 2 Trial of Adjuvant Apatinib in Patients of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma with Residual Epstein-Barr Virus DNA after Radiotherapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2022.

3. Liu Xu, et al. Characteristics of Radiotherapy Trials Compared With Other Oncological Clinical Trials in the Past 10 Years, JAMA Oncology 2018, 4(8): 1073-1079.

4. Liu Xu, et al. Quality of Abstracts Reporting Randomized Clinical Trials Presented at a Major Oncology Conference. JAMA Oncology 2017; 3: 414-416.

5. Liu Xu, et al. Prognostic value of magnetic resonance imaging-detected cranial nerve invasion in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, British Journal of Cancer 2014, 110(6): 1465-1471.

Updated June 2022 by International Office, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center