Abstract: Objective To investigate the clinical features,the effect of chemotherapy and prognostic factors of nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC) patients with liver metastasis.Methods A total 100 cases of NPC with liver metastases and received chemotherapy were included in this study.The statistical software SPSS 13.0 was used to analyze retrospectively the clinical data,survival and prognostic factors.Results The median course of chemotherapy was 3.5(1~14),in which 35 cases were more than 4 courses.The cases that used PF programs and non-PF program as the first-line chemotherapy were 71 and 29 respectively,and the effective powers were 57.7% and 42.9% respectively.The difference between PF programs and non-PF program was not significant(P=0.137).In the whole group,the median disease free survival(DFS) was 9 months(0~119),the median survival was 9 months(1~45),the 1-,2-and 3-year survival rates were 32.0%,11.0% and 2.0% respectively.The median survival durations of patients with more than 4 course chemotherapy and patients with less than 4 course chemotherapy were 14 months and 7 months respectively,which was significantly different(P=0.001).Single-factor analysis showed that the prognostic factors of patients with liver metastasis were the course of chemotherapy,complete remission(CR) and radiotherapy on liver metastasis(P=0.002,0.020 and 0.015 respectively).Multi-factor analysis showed that the important prognostic factors were DFS,metastasis before initial treatment,the course of chemotherapy,CR and radiotherapy on liver metastasis.Conclusion Prognosis of NPC with liver metastasis was poor.Multi-systemic chemotherapy should be done to strive CR if patients could tolerate.Palliative radiotherapy that may significantly improve the prognosis can also be tried on some patients.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Liver metastasis, Chemotherapy, Therapeutic efficacy, Prognosis