Abstract:

Objective This study aimed to compare survival in patients with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma（NPC） treated by concurrent chemoradiotherapy（CCRT） or radiotherapy（RT） alone. Methods Data were retrospectively analyzed for patients with stage Ⅱ NPC treated between June 2007 and April 2014 with CCRT（n=56） or RT alone （n=51）. The two patient groups were matched based on prognostic factors. The primary endpoint was overall survival （OS），and secondary endpoints were distant metastasis-free survival （DMFS），locoregional relapse-free survival （LRRFS），and failure-free survival （FFS）. Results The two groups showed similar primary and secondary outcomes：hazard ratios （HR） of the CCRT group relative to the RT group were 1.15 （95%CI 0.21-6.36） for OS，1.10（95%CI 0.26-4.73） for DMFS，1.16（95%CI 0.33-6.89） for LRRFS，and 1.38 （95%CI 0.36-5.25） for FFS. Multivariate analyses indicated that older age predicted lower LRRFS. Conclusion CCRT does not appear to improve prognosis of patients with stage Ⅱ NPC over conventional RT. Future studies should examine the efficacy of combining intensity modulated radiotherapy（IMRT） with CCRT.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasm, Concurrent chemoradiotherapy, Radiotherapy, Prognosis