Local treatment of metastases plus systemic chemotherapy on overall survival of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma

BACKGROUND: To investigate the effect of local treatment of metastases on overall survival (OS) of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). METHODS: One hundred and forty‐seven patients were included. The association between local treatment and OS was examined with propensity score matching (PSM) method. RESULTS: In entire cohort, the median OS was significantly longer in patients with local treatment of metastases plus chemotherapy compared to those with chemotherapy alone (71.7 vs. 16.2 months; p < 0.001). In PSM cohort, similar OS benefit of patients with local treatment was observed (55.6 vs. 17.6 months; p = 0.011). The survival benefit of local treatment remained regardless of the number of metastatic lesions and metastatic sites. Patients received radiation doses of >60 Gy had longer OS than those who received less. CONCLUSIONS: Local treatment of metastases could improve OS of patients with metastatic NPC and could be considered in their treatment in addition to chemotherapy.