title: Multimodality Treatment May Improve the Survival Rate of Patients with Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma with Good Performance Status.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the benefit of chemotherapy, combined with palliative radiotherapy (PRT) and other local treatments to the metastatic sites, for patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who had a performance status 0-2. We conducted a retrospective review of available data from 197 biopsy-proven NPC patients who developed metastasis after their initial definitive treatment. These patients were grouped into three categories according to the different treatment paths that were followed: the best supportive care (64 patients), chemotherapy alone (55 patients), and multimodality treatment with chemotherapy combined with PRT and other local treatments to metastatic sites (78 patients). The 2-year metastatic survival rate of patients in the multimodality treatment group was 57.7%, which was significantly better than that of the patients in both the chemotherapy alone group and the best supportive care group (32.7% and 1.6%, respectively). The independent significant factors affecting survival were the disease-free interval prior to the detection of metastatic disease, the number of metastases, the number of chemotherapy cycles and the biological effective dose of PRT. In conclusion, multimodality treatment may improve survival of select patients with recurrent NPC with distant metastases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.|Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Medicine (Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital), Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.|Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Medicine (Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital), Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jingfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zong
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.|Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Medicine (Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital), Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chaobin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.|Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Medicine (Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital), Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Juhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.|Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Medicine (Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital), Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Junxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.|Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Medicine (Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital), Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chuanben
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.|Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Medicine (Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital), Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shaojun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.|Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Medicine (Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital), Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jianji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D015996:Survival Rate; D055815:Young Adult