title: A prospective study on therapeutic gain by concurrent chemoradiotherapy for stage II-IV a nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
abstract: The benefit achieved by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCR) and sequential chemoradiotherapy (SCR) vs radiotherapy (RT) alone for patients with stage II-IVa nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) was compared. A total of 113 patients with stage II-IV a NPC were allotted into CCR group (n=38), SCR group (n=36) and RT alone group (n=39). All patients were irradiated with the same RT technique to ≥66 Gy at 2 Gy per fraction, conventional 5 fractions/week in all groups. The CCR group received concurrent chemotherapy of weekly cisplatin for 7 weeks, and the SCR group received neoadjuvant and (or) adjuvant chemotherapy. The results showed that the 3- and 5-year overall survival rate was significantly higher in CCR group than in RT alone group (92.16% vs 61.54%, 81.58% vs 51.28%, P<0.005). The median survival time was significantly longer in CCR group than in RT alone group (67.8 months vs 52.7 months, P<0.005). It was concluded that CCR could significantly improve overall survival rate, progression-free survival rate, and median survival time when compared with RT alone.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
authors.forename: Hu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guangyuan
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guoxian
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
authors.forename: Qiu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
authors.forename: Fu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qiang
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. gqhu@tjh.tjmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guoqing
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; D059248:Chemoradiotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002945:Cisplatin