CARCINOMA OF THE NASOPHARYNX - RESULTS OF RADIATION TREATMENT AND SOME PROGNOSTIC FACTORS

Seventy-four patients treated for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the nasopharynx were evaluated for the 5-year survival rate. The influence of stage, age, histological differentiation, total tumour dose and irradiation treatment technique (continuous vs. split-course) upon the survival was evaluated in 64 patients (palliations and histologically unclassified SCC were excluded). The 5-year survival rate in the whole group was 28/74 (38%), and in the group without palliations and unclassified SCC 26/64 (41%). The 5-year survival of patients with T1 carcinoma was better (8/9 = 89%) than of patients with T2 (4/14 = 29%), T3 (7/17 = 41%) and T4 (7/24 = 29%) carcinoma. In the group of 55 patients with T2, T3 and T4 carcinoma, those up to 50 years old had better survival (11/21 = 52%) than patients older than 50 years (7/34 = 21%) (P < 0.01), patients treated with the tumour dose > 65 Gy had better survival (16/38 = 42%) than those treated with 50-65 Gy (2/17 = 12%) (p < 0.05), and patients older than 50 years, with poorly differentiated carcinoma had better survival (7/20 = 35%) than those of the same age, with well-differentiated carcinoma (0/14 = 0%) (p < 0.005). The split-course irradiation technique did not improve the 5-year survival rate, although on average the total tumour dose in this type of treatment was for 7.9 Gy higher than in the continuous irradiation.