A Clinical Study of Nasopharyngeal Cancer.

The outcomes of 40 cases of nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC), treated in our hospital between November 1976 and December 1998, were evaluated. Factors that appeared to influence prognosis were assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method. The ages of the patients ranged from 17 to 78 years. There were 28 males and 12 females.The cumulative five-year survival rate for the whole study population was 45.1%. The UICC classification (1997) was used for disease staging. The percentages of patients survival after five-years were: 100% for stage I (5 case), 71.4% for stage 101B (9 cases), 11.4% for stage III (9 cases), 33.3% for stage IV A (3 cases), 53.6% for stage NB (7 cases), and 0% for stage IV C (3 cases). The histological type with the highest survival rate was keratinizing type which had a 33.3% (10 cases) survival rate. The anatomical sites of primary tumors with the survival rate were 54% for the posterior wall (25 cases) and 36% for the lateral wall (10 cases). The survival rate according to classification based on initial therapy were as follows: radiotherapy alone group, 49.4% (20 cases); combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy group, 34.4% (14 cases). Since the most frequent cases of death was distant metastasis (67%), we suggest that the prevention of distant metastasis is important.