Clinical study of local-advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy

Objective:To study the survival of local-advanced nasopharynjgeal carcinoma(NPC)patients treated with radiation alone and compared patients treated with chemoradiation.Methods:From February 2001 to June 2003,60 patients with local-advanced NPC(group A)were treated with DDP and 5-Fu combined with simultaneous standard radiotherapy,in which DDP and 5-Fu were intravenously given every 4 weeks for four to five courses.Another 60 patients(group B)chosen from the same period and matched with the group A by sex,age,karnofsky performance scale,and clinical stage were treated with standard radiotherapy alone.Results:At 2~3 months after radiotherapy the complete response rate of the metastases of lymph nodes in group A was significantly higher than that in group B(P0.05).The tumor control rates of group A and group B at 3-year were 87.2% to 70.3%(P0.05)respectively,and the distant metastatic rates at 3-year were 17.2% to 38.8%(P0.05)respectively,and the survival rate at 3-year were 75.2% to 48.3%(P0.05)respectively.Conclusion:Radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy may increase the local disease control and the survival rate and may also decrease the distant metastasis in patients with local-advanced NPC.