title: The seventh edition of the UICC/AJCC staging system for nasopharyngeal carcinoma is prognostically useful for patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy from an endemic area in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the 7th edition of the International Union against Cancer/American Joint Committee on Cancer (UICC/AJCC) staging system for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective data review from 512 patients with biopsy-proven, nonmetastatic NPC in our cancer center (South China) between January 2003 and December 2006.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The local relapse-free survival rates (LRFS) and disease failure-free survival rates (DFS) in the 6th edition system T1 and T2a stages were not significantly different (P=0.629 and P=0.820), while the LRFS and DFS of T1 and T2 using the 7th edition system were significantly different (P=0.019 and P=0.009). The LRFS and DFS between T2 and T3 in the 7th edition systems were lack of significance (P=0.874 and P=0.589). The total difference in distant metastasis-free survival rate and DFS between N0 and N3 was slightly larger using the 7th edition system than the 6th edition. The nodal dimension of a cervical lymph node was not a significant prognostic factor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed a better segregation of survival curves by using the 7th edition system. It seems reasonable to downstage T3 as T2 and reject nodal greatest dimension from the N-staging system in the future revised edition.
authors: Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Center, People's Republic of China.
authors: Lei
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: Yan-Ping
authors: YP
authors: Mao
authors: Fang-Yun
authors: FY
authors: Xie
authors: Li-Zhi
authors: LZ
authors: Liu
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Sun
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Tian
authors: Ling-Long
authors: LL
authors: Tang
authors: Ai-Hua
authors: AH
authors: Lin
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Li
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Ma
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate