Concurrent Chemotherapy can Further Improve Clinical Outcome for Stage III Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients Treated with IMRT in Endemic Area

Abstract

Results: Median follow-up were 36 and 32 months for IMRT-alone group and IMRT + CCT group respectively. The 3-year estimates of DSS, LRFS, RRFS and DMFS were 85%, 92%, 94%, and 83% for the IMRT-alone group, respectively, compared with 95% (p = 0.01), 99% (p = 0.04), 97% (p = 0.41), and 85% (p = 0.73) for the IMRT + CCT group, respectively. The Cox regression showed that the hazard rates ratio of IMRT + CCT to IMRT-alone was 0.216, 0.092, 0.446, and 0.715 for DSS (p = 0.012), LRFS (p = 0.042), RRFS (p = 0.331), and DMFS (p = 0.860), respectively. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that CCT in Chinese patients with stage III NPC can improve DSS when patients are treated with IMRT and the survival benefit seems to be associated with a significant improved LRFS.