Intensity-modulated radiotherapy provides better quality of life than two-dimensional conventional radiotherapy for patients with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Xin-Bin Pan,Song Qu,Kai-Hua Chen,Ling Li,Xiao-Dong Zhu,Shi-Ting Huang,Long Chen,Yan-Ming Jiang,Jia-Lin Ma

doi:10.18632/oncotarget.17582

Abstract

Two-dimensional conventional radiotherapy (2D-CRT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) are effective for control of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of life (QoL) of stage II NPC patients treated with 2D-CRT versus IMRT. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 106 patients with stage II NPC treated with 2D-CRT (n = 47) versus IMRT (n = 59) between June 2008 and June 2013. For all subjects, disease-free survival was more than 3 years. QoL was assessed using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) questions and the Head and Neck 35 (EORTC QLQ-H&N35) questions. Patients receiving IMRT with or without concurrent chemotherapy had better outcomes in head and neck related symptoms and general aspects of QoL than those receiving 2D-CRT with or without concurrent chemotherapy. Thus, IMRT improves the QoL of patients with stage II NPC as compared to 2D-CRT.

Highlights

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is highly endemic in southern China [1]
The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of life (QoL) of stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients treated with twodimensional conventional radiotherapy (2D-CRT) versus intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)
Clinical superiority of IMRT for QoL was significant on all functional scales and most symptom scales upon clinical interpretation

Summary

Introduction

Radiotherapy is the primary treatment modality for NPC. The incidence of stage II NPC has greatly increased with improvements in diagnosis, and after treatment the 5-year overall survival is assumed to be 95% or higher [2, 3]. Previous studies suggested that IMRT improved symptoms and QoL for NPC survivors [4,5,6]. All of these studies were confounded by the interference of chemotherapy [7, 8]. While the previous studies treated NPC as a whole group and analyzed

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