A Retrospective Study of Clinicoepidemiological Aspects of Nasopharyngeal Cancer at NCI-Cairo (2000-2010)

Abstract

Aim of Work: The aim of this work was to study the clinico-epidemiological characteristics of the patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), analyse the prognostic factors of the disease and to analyse the results of different treatment modalities and their effect on loco-regional, distal metastatic disease control and both overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) rates. Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective study reviewing all adult nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients who presented to the radiotherapy department—National Cancer Institute Cairo University in the period from (2000-2010). Results: In this study, it was found that the mean age was 45 years; most of the patients were of locally advanced stages. Multivariate cox proportional hazards regression identified T-stage, radiotherapy course completion & addition of chemotherapy as independent prognostic factors for local control (LC), DFS, & OS. The 5-year LC, DFS and OS rates for all studied patients were 38.2%, 33.5% & 37.2% respectively. The median DFS was 26 months and median OS was 36.5 months. Conclusion: This study matches the published data that support that radical concurrent chemoradiation is the mainstay of treatment of locally advanced NPC, & that T-stage, M-stage, prescribed dose completion, response to initial treatment are independent prognostic factors for survival. All measures should be taken to improve the local response during primary treatment as this will improve survival rates of patients with NPC.