Clinical and prognostic analyses of 110 patients with N(3) nasopharyngeal carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical outcome and prognostic factors of N(3) nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPCs), provide a basis for rational treatment and improve the cure rate. METHODS: A total of 110 patients with a pathologically confirmed diagnosis of N(3) (NPC 2008 stage in China) NPC from our hospital were retrospectively included in the study conducted from April 2007 to July 2011. All patients received intensity-modulated radiation therapy. Some of these patients received various chemotherapies. The doses of the planning gross primary tumor and retropharyngeal lymph node volume, high-risk planning tumor volume, low-risk planning tumor volume, and gross tumor volume of neck lymph nodes were 6000 to 7600, 5400 to 6600, 5000 to 6000, and 6000 to 6996 cGy, respectively. The Kaplan–Meier analysis and logrank test were carried out to calculate and compare the survival rates of the patients, and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 17.0 was used for all analyses. Meanwhile, the Cox model was used to analyze the prognostic factors. RESULTS: In this study, the 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates of the patients were 92.63%, 83.16%, and 70.53%, respectively. Based on the univariate analysis, T stage (P = .043) and chemotherapy (P = .003) were significant factors for survival. In the multivariate analysis, only chemotherapy influenced survival (Table 1 ). Recent toxicity included radioactive oral mucosa inflammation and skin injury, and difficulty opening the mouth and hearing loss were considered late adverse reactions. None of the patients died during treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with N(3) NPC are at high risk of distant metastasis, and their 5-year survival rate is poor. The more important prognostic factors were T stage and chemotherapy. Patients with N(3) NPC should be treated with combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy.