Objectives: The aim was to define the role of chemotherapy in stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to identify the toxicity of chemotherapy for these patients in the era of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).
Methods: Between January 2002 and December 2013, 169 patients with stage II NPC were analyzed. Of these patients, 149 patients treated with chemotherapy were divided into three groups as follows: neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by IMRT (NCT) group, concurrent chemotherapy with IMRT (CCRT) group, and neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by CCRT (NC+CCRT) group. In addition, 20 patients received IMRT alone. We retrospectively assessed the 10-year survival and acute adverse effects in the patients using SPSS software.
Results: The median follow-up time was 93 months (2–160 months). The 10-year OS of the NCT, CCRT, NC+CCRT groups vs the IMRT alone group was 69.8%, 63.4%, 69.7% vs 72.4%, respectively (P =0.664, 0.940, and 0.998, respectively). Both univariable and multivariable analyses showed that the addition of chemotherapy to IMRT did not significantly improve the 10-year survival outcomes. The hematotoxicity and mucous reaction of patients with chemotherapy were more serious than those with IMRT alone (P =0.007 and 0.049). Distant metastasis for stage II NPC patients mostly occurred within 3 years, which is very different from patients with advanced NPC.
Conclusion: Patients with stage II NPC who are treated with IMRT may obtain satisfactory long-term survival outcomes. The additional chemotherapy cannot significantly increase survival; however, it may remarkably increase treatment-associated acute toxic reactions.
Keywords: stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma, NPC, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, IMRT, chemotherapy