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[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of aged nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients: a report of 313 cases].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
Although there are many multi-center, large sample sized, randomized prospective or retrospective studies, most aged nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients were excluded from these studies. This study was to explore clinical characteristics and prognoses of aged NPC patients.


METHODS
Clinical data of 313 NPC patients older than 60 years, hospitalized in the Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma of Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University from Jan. 1, 1998 to Dec. 31, 2001, were analyzed. Of the 313 patients, 265 were men and 48 were women; 295 patients received radiotherapy, 91 of which received chemotherapy; 18 patients received chemotherapy alone or no treatment. The survival rate was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method, and compared by log-rank test. Prognosis was analyzed by Cox regression model.


RESULTS
The 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates of the 295 aged NPC patients underwent radiotherapy were 77.0%, 58.0%, 48.0% and 78.0%, 60.0%, 53.0%, respectively. Clinical stage, T stage, N stage, involvement of the skull base, cranial nerve invasion, radiation dose on the nasopharynx, radiotherapeutic field and interval time were significant prognostic factors of survival(P<0.05), whereas only clinical stage was independent prognostic factor(P<0.01). Chemotherapy did not influent the prognosis of aged NPC patients (P=0.42).


CONCLUSIONS
Radiotherapy is an effective way to cure aged NPC patients, while chemotherapy can not improve the efficacy. '92 Fuzhou staging can predict prognosis of aged NPC patients properly. Elderly NPC patients have worse survival rates than non-aged ones.