title: Afterloading radiotherapy for local persistence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
abstract: 71 patients suffering from local persistence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma after primary external radiotherapy were treated by afterloading intracavitary 192Ir. 66 (93.0%) had a complete response as evidenced by fibreoptic nasopharyngoscope examination and biopsy 4 weeks after the treatment. Significant prognosticators were studied by both monovariate and multivariate analysis. The early overall clinical stage at first presentation predicted a favourable survival. Local tumour control was adversely affected by advanced T-stage at first presentation, and by using a single 192Ir source, unilaterally applied to treat only one side of the nasopharynx. The intracavitary treatment was tolerated well and treatment complications were confined to the nasopharynx: chronic radiation ulceration (five patients) and diffuse telangiectasia (three patients).
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Teo
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: W Y
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D001918:Brachytherapy; D006801:Humans; D007496:Iridium Radioisotopes / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007496:Iridium Radioisotopes