title: [Characterization of the clinical evolution of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Portuguese population].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Otorrinolarongologia, Instituto Português de Oncologia, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Breda
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Catarino
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Azevedo
authors.forename: Tomé
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barreira da Costa
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Medeiros
mesh_terms: 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