title: Management of local residual primary lesion of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC): are higher doses beneficial?
abstract: One hundred and eighty-two nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients, treated from March 1958 through 1978, received 70 Gy or more and were left with gross residual lesion in the nasopharynx, were retrospectively analyzed. Ninety-two patients were given a boost by reduced portals to a total of 90-120 Gy (boost group) whereas for the other non-randomized 90 patients, the treatment was stopped at 70 Gy (observation group). The local recurrence, distant metastasis and 5-year survival rates of the two groups are: 35% (32/92) vs. 58% (52/90), 20% (18/92) vs. 43% (39/90), and 54% (50/92) vs. 21% (19/90), respectively. The benefit of boost is more apparent in patients with T1-2 than T3-4 lesions (p less than 0.001), at increased risk of radiation encephalo-myelitis from 5.5% to 17%. The authors believe that boost be given to patients with early Stage T or small residual lesion at the primary site of NPC.
authors.affiliation: Dept. Radiation Oncology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: D X
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: G Z
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: X L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: X Z
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D002277:Carcinoma / Q000532:radiotherapy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000532:radiotherapy; D006801:Humans; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011379:Prognosis; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011882:Radiotherapy, High-Energy