A multi-institutional survey of the effectiveness of chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
Previous randomized trials have shown a survival advantage of concurrent platinum-based chemoradiotherapy with or without adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced nasopharyngeal cancer. Applicability of these data to a Japanese population is an important issue which remains to be solved.


METHODS
A retrospective survey of treatment of patients with nasopharyngeal cancer in 17 institutions in Japan was done with special reference to the relationship between the type of chemotherapy and survival outcome. Chemotherapy used was classified according to: (i) whether > or =2 courses of platinum plus 5-fluorouracil (FP) was given; or (ii) whether platinum was administered concurrently with radiotherapy (RT). This resulted in three groups being produced consisting of (i)/(ii) = YES/YES, other miscellaneous (MISC) and RT alone.


RESULTS
Of 333 evaluable replies, 67 patients (20%) corresponded to the YES/YES, 192 (58%) to the MISC and 74 (22%) to the RT alone group. The YES/YES group achieved a better overall survival than RT alone for patients with intermediate stage (T3N0 or T1-3N1, 81.9 versus 60.7% at 5 years, P = 0.042) and advanced stage (T4 or N2/3, 56.6 versus 31.5%, P = 0.017) disease. The MISC group achieved an almost identical survival rate to that in the YES/YES group for patients with intermediate stage disease (81.9% at 5 years, P = 0.968), whereas it was not significantly different from that of the RT alone group for patients with advanced stage disease (44.0%, P = 0.261).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this survey mirrored the data from previous randomized trials for patients with intermediate and advanced stage nasopharyngeal cancer in Japan. However, confirmatory prospective trials are required to test the efficacy of less toxic approaches for patients with intermediate stage disease.
Kawashima
Mitsuhiko
M
Division of Radiation Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East, 6-5-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8577, Japan. mkawashi@east.ncc.go.jp
Fuwa
Nobukazu
N
Myojin
Miyako
M
Nakamura
Katsumasa
K
Toita
Takafumi
T
Saijo
Shigeru
S
Hayashi
Nobuyuki
N
Ohnishi
Hiroshi
H
Shikama
Naoto
N
Kano
Makoto
M
Yamamoto
Michinori
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003625:Data Collection; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D010984:Platinum / Q000008:administration & dosage; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D010984:Platinum; D005472:Fluorouracil