Comparison of the Efficiency of Induction and Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with Locally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Cancer.

Abstract

To make a comparative evaluation of induction chemotherapy (ICT) or adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) added to standard concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients diagnosed with locally advanced nasopharyngeal cancer (LANPC) (Stage 3-4a patients, except T3N0). Observational study. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Medical Oncology, Dr. Abdurrahman Yurtaslan Ankara Oncology Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey, from April 2009 to June 2021. Clinicopathological features of adult patients diagnosed with LANPC were recorded from the hospital's patient registry database. Patients without the medical records were excluded. An assessment of the effectiveness of induction or ACT added to standard definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) was performed, and the application cycles were evaluated. Seventy-four patients (71.6% male, mean age 50.8±11.7) with LANPC were included in the study. There is no statistical difference in progression-free survival (PFS) between patients who applied ICT (before CRT) and ACT (after CRT) (p = 0.61). Female patients and patients aged ≤50 years had better PFS as independent factors (HR=3.82, 95% CI 1.14-12.74, p = 0.029; HR: 1.06 95% CI 1.02-1.10, p = 0.002, respectively). Also, patients aged 50 years and younger and female patients had a statistically longer overall survival (OS) (p = 0.045, and p = 0.012, respectively). While there was statistically no significant difference in PFS according to the number of cycles for EBER-positive patients received adjuvant Cisplatin-5FU (CF); 3 cycles compared to 2 showed a statistically higher OS (p = 0.06, and p = 0.022, respectively). Conclusion: LANPC patients were found to have a positive survival if they were young and females. There was a positive impact on survival of intensified adjuvant CF in EBER-positive nonkeratinising, undifferentiated LANPC patients. Locally advanced nasopharyngeal cancer, EBER, Induction chemotherapy, Adjuvant chemotherapy.