[Characterization of the clinical evolution of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Portuguese population].
OBJECTIVE
Characterization of the clinical evolution of nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) patients in a Portuguese population during 31 years of follow-up.


METHODS
Three hundred and twenty patients with epidermoid nasopharyngeal carcinoma were selected for this study. Histological subtypes were analyzed along with survival rates after different treatment schemes and according to AJCC and UICC staging classification systems.


RESULTS
The most frequent histological subtype was undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The AJCC-2001 staging classification was considered the most suitable system for survival prediction. Better survival rates were found in patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy (cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil) and these findings were similar to other published results.


CONCLUSIONS
Although adjuvant chemotherapy may reduce the likelihood of distant metastasis, the latter is still the main cause of death in our study. The distant metastasis rate remains the crucial problem and bringing it down is an ever closer goal and a challenge for the future.
Breda
Eduardo
E
Departamento de Otorrinolarongologia, Instituto Português de Oncologia, Porto, Portugal.
Catarino
Raquel
R
Azevedo
Isabel
I
Fernandes
Tomé
T
Barreira da Costa
Carlos
C
Medeiros
Rui
R
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D015996:Survival Rate