Abstract: Objective To evaluate the effect of combined chemotherapy-radiotherapy-hyperthermia on patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and cervical lymph node metastasis. Methods A total of 203 cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with cervical lymph node metastasis were randomly divided into two groups：the control group（98 cases），which was treated with  combined 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin chemotherapy，as well as routine radiotherapy； and the hyperthermia group（105 cases），which was treated with the same chemo- and radiotherapy as the control group to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma，while cervical lymph node metastasis was treated with hyperthermia accompanied by radiotherapy. Results Complete response rates of cervical lymph nodes were 62.2% in the control group and 81.0%  in the hyperthermia group（P<0.05）.The 5 year disease-free survival rates was 20.4% in the control group and 51.4% in the hyperthermia group（P<0.05）.The 3- and 5-year overall survival rate were 52.0% and 40.8% in the control group and 76.2% and 58.1% in the hyperthermia group（P>0.05）. Conclusions The combination of chemotherapy-radiotherapy-hyperthermia is more effective than chemotherapy-radiotherapy for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and cervical lymph node metastasis.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasms, Lymph node metastasis, Radiotherapy, Chemotherapy, Hyperthermia, Therapeutic effect