title: Prognostic effect of pregnancy on young female patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: results from a matched cohort analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to evaluate the prognosis of pregnancy-associated patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in a young population.
  
  
  METHODS
  From June 1999 to December 2010, 51 patients aged ≤ 35 years who were diagnosed with NPC during pregnancy or within one year after delivery were admitted into the pregnancy-associated group in our institution. An additional 51 patients who were not pregnant at diagnosis were selected from 451 patients based on the matching criteria to match the pregnancy-associated female patients. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). The secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and distant-metastasis failure-free survival (DMFS) and locoregional failure-free survival (LRFS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The advanced stage was not different between the pregnant and the non-pregnant group before matching (69.8% vs. 70.3%, P = 0.690). No difference in OS at the median follow-up time of 92 months was observed between the pregnancy-associated and the non-pregnant group (85.4% vs. 92.2%, P = 0.478); likewise, no differences were observed regarding PFS and DMFS. However, the pregnancy-associated group had worse LRFS than the non-pregnant group (84.8% vs. 95.9%, P = 0.033). When the pregnancy-associated patients were dichotomized into an early pregnancy group and a late pregnancy group, our data showed that pregnancy interval did not seem to impact the risk of death or relapse.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results show that patients in the pregnant group did not seem to have more advanced stage or inferior survival than that in the non-pregnant group.
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, Hunan Cancer Hospital, Changsha, P. R. China.|Department of Radiotherapy, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, P. R. China.|Key Laboratory of Translational Radiation Oncology, Changsha, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Huai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lin-Quan
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qiu-Yan
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shan-Shan
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Li-Ting
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hao-Yuan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ka-Jia
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chao-Nan
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Mu-Sheng
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Molecular Diagnostics, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jian-Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|GCP center, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ming-Huang
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China.|Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hai-Qiang
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Mai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D011247:Pregnancy; D011252:Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D011379:Prognosis; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / Q000379:methods
keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma; pregnancy; prognosis; survival