Gemcitabine improves survival in patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma

For decades, the selection of chemotherapeutic regimens for the treatment of recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma has been mainly empirical. To our knowledge, there is no phase 3 trial that has been conducted to determine the optimal treatment for these patients before our publication. Recently, we published an article in The Lancet entitled “Gemcitabine plus cisplatin versus fluorouracil plus cisplatin in recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a multicentre, randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial.” The results of our study indicate that gemcitabine plus cisplatin could improve the survival of patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma compared with conventional fluorouracil plus cisplatin.