title: Factors associated with overall survival in 1706 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: significance of intensive neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiation break.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To exam factors associated with overall survival (OS) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is a retrospective study of a total of 1706 consecutive NPC patients from a single institution between January 1995 and December 1998. One thousand eighty-one patients were treated with radiotherapy (RT) alone and 625 with an intensive course of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by RT. Patient, tumor and treatment factors were analyzed for their significance on 5-year overall survival (OS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Younger age, female gender, absence of anemia pre-RT, early tumor stage, interruption of RT, and neoadjuvant chemotherapy were significantly associated with survival under multivariate analysis (all P<0.05). The 5-year OS rates were 100%, 75.9% (95%CI 71.6-80.2%), 66.5% (95%CI 62.8-70.2%), and 49.3% (95%CI 45.0-53.6%) for stage I, II, III, and IV (P<0.05); 68.9% (95%CI 66.2-71.5%) and 63.7% (95%CI 61.5-65.8%), for patients treated with or without neoadjuvant chemotherapy (P=0.0051), and 51.7% (95%CI 45.0-58.4%) and 69.5% (95%CI 67.2-71.7%) for patients with or without treatment break (P<0.0001), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Intensive neoadjuvant chemotherapy and absence of radiation break seem to be favorable factors associated with long-term survival in patients with NPC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Luying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jianji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Junxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Caizhu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shaojun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Chuanben
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Senan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Xiaolei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Feng-Ming Spring
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Kong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D002681:China; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome