Local treatment of metastases plus systemic chemotherapy on overall survival of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Abstract

BackgroundTo investigate the effect of local treatment of metastases on overall survival (OS) of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).MethodsOne hundred and forty‐seven patients were included. The association between local treatment and OS was examined with propensity score matching (PSM) method.ResultsIn entire cohort, the median OS was significantly longer in patients with local treatment of metastases plus chemotherapy compared to those with chemotherapy alone (71.7 vs. 16.2 months; p < 0.001). In PSM cohort, similar OS benefit of patients with local treatment was observed (55.6 vs. 17.6 months; p = 0.011). The survival benefit of local treatment remained regardless of the number of metastatic lesions and metastatic sites. Patients received radiation doses of >60 Gy had longer OS than those who received less.ConclusionsLocal treatment of metastases could improve OS of patients with metastatic NPC and could be considered in their treatment in addition to chemotherapy.