title: Impact of diabetes mellitus on treatment outcomes in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the influence of diabetes mellitus on stages and long-term outcomes among patients with nasopharyngeal cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study summarized 37 patients who were diagnosed as having diabetes mellitus and nasopharyngeal cancer and treated by radiotherapy between January 1999 and December 1999. With a median follow-up of 34.6 mo, we analyzed differences in RFS, MFS, DFS, and OS between the diabetes and the non-diabetes group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  37 patients were involved in our study. According to the Chinese Fuzhou staging system for NPC, which was modified in 1992, 2 patients belong to stage I, 9 stage II, 17 stage III, and 6 stage IV. The 4-yr RFS of diabetes group and non-diabetes group was 52.1% vs 68.2%, the 4-yr MFS was 73.0% vs 72.0%, the 4-yr DFS was 35.1% vs 65.1%, and the OS was 67.6% vs 75.7%. The Wilcoxon (Gehan) test showed there was no significant difference between the two groups of RFS, MFS, and OS, while the diabetes group had a worse DFS than non-diabetes group (Wilcoxon p = 0.0047).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with diabetes had a worse DFS than non-diabetes, but statistic tests did not show significant differences in RFS, MFS, and OS; further studies should be continue to find out the results in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, The Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Sun-Yet-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yunfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Nianji
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015897:Comorbidity; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000628:therapy*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000379:methods; D012008:Recurrence; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome