title: Nasopharyngeal cancer of childhood and adolescence: a single institution experience.
abstract: Nasopharyngeal cancer is rare in childhood and results with radiotherapy are far from encouraging. A total of 52 patients with stage I to IVB nasopharygeal cancer and age <18, received radiotherapy to 60-66 Gy in 2-Gy fractions to the nasopharynx and cervical nodes, while 22 of these patients also received chemotherapy with cisplatin and 5 FU. Three-year disease-free survival with concurrent chemotherapy was 82% compared to 40% for patients who had radiotherapy alone (p = .001; HR 0.33; 95% CI 0.25-0.74). The 3-year overall survival in the patients who received radiotherapy was 72% and that in the patients who received concurrent chemotherapy was 77% (p = .38). A statistically significant improvement in disease-free survival was observed with concurrent chemoradiation in nonmetastatic nasopharyngeal cancer in young patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Oncology, Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, Surrey, UK. drvramachandran@gmail.com
authors.forename: Ramachandran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Venkitaraman
authors.forename: S Ganapathy
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Ramanan
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Sagar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging