Analysis of Clinical Characteristics and Prognostic Factors of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC) and explore influencing prognosis factors for providing the treatment strategy.Methods Clinical characteristics of 352 patients with NPC confirmed by histopathology and treated for the first time were analyzed retrospectively.Univariate and multivariate survival analysis of influencing prognosis factors,such as gender,age,family history,histological type,TNM stage,RT dose to primary tumor,RT dose to neck,receiving brachytherapy or not,receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy or not and so on,were performed.Results The median follow-up for the whole group was 48 months(range,1 to 72 months).Of 352 cases,169 cases died.The 1-,3-,and 5-year overall survival rates in this group were 89.1%,61.8% and 51.3%,respectively.The 5-year overall survival rates of patients at stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ and Ⅳ were 91.2%,72.3%,46.8% and 31.3%,respectively.Univariate analysis suggested that age,clinical stage,T stage,N stage,M stage,RT dose to primary tumor,RT dose to neck,receiving brachytherapy or not,and receiving chemotherapy or not were correlated with the NPC prognosis(P0.05).Multivariate analysis suggested that age,clinical stage,N stage,M stage,and RT dose to primary tumor were the independent prognostic factors for overall survival(P0.05).Conclusion The young have better survival than the old.NPC patients at the later clinical stage,N stage,M stage have poorer survival.The radical radiotherapy can increase the survival of NPC,while radiotherapy combined with irregular chemotherapy can not improve the survival of locally advanced NPC.