Salvage Treatment for Locally Recurrent Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC)

Abstract

It is important to determine the outcomes of retreatment in patients with locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We reviewed the records of patients treated for local recurrence at Stanford and Shantou Universities. The end points were local relapse-free survival (LRFS) and overall survival after retreatment. Fifty-six patients from Stanford and 98 from Shantou qualified. For the Stanford patients, 33 had surgery alone (S group), 12 had surgery plus radiotherapy±chemotherapy (CMT group), and 22 had radiotherapy±chemotherapy (RT Stanford group). All Shantou patients received radiotherapy±chemotherapy (RT Shantou group). The 5-year LRFS rates were: 57% for S group, 25% for CMT group, 53% for RT Stanford group, and 41% for RT Shantou group (P>0.05) for rT1-2 tumors; they were 29% for S group, 25% for CMT group, 39% for RT Stanford group, and 9% for RT Shantou group for rT3-4 tumors (P>0.05). For RT patients, 5-year overall survival rates were 49% for Stanford and 25% for Shantou patients (P=0.026). Similar and durable LRFS rates were attained for both S and RT groups when stratified by rT-stage.