Arterial interventional chemotherapy and IMRT with concurrent chemotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma with intracranial involvement

The aim of this study was to ensure a high dose of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) was delivered to tumor tissue with a low dose to normal organs. Seldinger interventional techniques were used to inject chemotherapy drugs for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). IMRT was conducted 3 weeks after intervention. Primary tumor volume was reduced by 42.76% after 2 doses of interventional chemotherapy and intracranial tumor volume was reduced by 55.63%. All patients presented grade II and above nasopharyngeal mucositis. In the 2 years following radiotherapy, overall survival (OS) was 83.3% and progression-free survival (PFS) was 75%. In conclusion, T4 NPC patients with intracranial extension received induction chemotherapy followed by IMRT and concurrent chemotherapy, which proved to be efficacious and well tolerated.