PROGNOSTIC FACTORS INFLUENCING COMPLETE RESPONSE TO TREATMENT AND SURVIVAL OF PATIENTS WITH NASOPHARYNGEAL CANCER

The identification of prognostic-factors influencing local control and survival of patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) might help in p ointing out those patients who would probably benefit from primary tre atment. A series of 137 Greek patients with locally advanced NPC treat ed with chemotherapy and/or radiation were analyzed for significant pr ognostic factors influencing complete response (CR) to treatment, time to progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS). After the completion of treatment 92 (67%) patients achieved CR Logistic regression analysi s revealed that only T classification was significant for CR (p = 0.00 58). After a median follow-up of 5 years, 66 (48%) patients demonstrat ed tumor progression and 64 (47%) died. Median ITP was 25.8 months (ra nge 0.3-118+) and median survival 58.3 months (range, 0.3-124+). Cox p roportional hazards model identified age (p = 0.024) and T classificat ion (p = 0.009) as significant factors for TTP. These two factors were also found to be significant for OS (p=0.005 and p = 0.013, respectiv ely). The present study has shown that major prognostic factors influe ncing the outcome of our patients with NPC are similar to those report ed in recent Chinese studies. These prognostic factors may be used as stratification factors in randomized clinical trials.