Comparison of clinical outcomes between concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone for patients associated with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A retrospective analysis of single center experience.

Abstract

e16003 Background: Up to date, the mainstay of treatment is concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with or without adjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. However, the exact role of adjuvant chemotherapy has not been established yet. Methods: Medical record review and data collection were performed for 148 patients who were diagnosed of locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma from October 1996 to September 2009. We analyzed clinical outcomes between the patients who received CCRT followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin and 5-FU, and CCRT alone. Results: The estimated 5 year survival rates were 78.3% for the CCRT group and 69.1% for the CCRT followed by adjuvant chemotherapy, respectively (p=0.223). For patients of TNM stage IVA or IVB, the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) had no significant differences between the two groups (p=0.062 and 0.538, respectively). For the patients with stage I, II or III at diagnosis, the PFS and OS were not statistically significant either (p=0.112 and 0.266, respectively). Conclusions: For all stages of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, adjuvant chemotherapy after CCRT did not affect the survival or recurrent rate. A randomized prospective study with long-term follow-up is necessary.