Po-Ju Lin1, Chih-Wen Twu2,3, Yi-Chun Liu4, Tian-Yun Lin5, Wen-Yi Wang6,7, Jin-Ching Lin3,4. 1. Department of Radiation Oncology, Tungs' Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan. 2. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan. 3. Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. 4. Department of Radiation Oncology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan. 5. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. 6. Department of Nursing, Hung Kuang University, Taichung, Taiwan. 7. Department of Nursing, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the long-term survivals between altered fractionated and conventional fractionated radiotherapy with the same concurrent chemoradiotherapy (concurrent CRT) for patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 203 patients with NPC who received radiotherapy (RT) by either a conventional fractionated (70-74 Gy/35-37 fractions/7-8 weeks) or altered fractionated (72-75 Gy/45 fractions/6 weeks) schedule plus the same concurrent CRT. RESULTS: The patient characteristics between conventional fractionated and altered fractionated groups showed similar distribution. The 5-year rates of nasopharyngeal failure-free, neck failure-free, and distant metastasis failure-free survival between conventional fractionated and altered fractionated groups were 88% versus 86% (P = .7781), 95% versus 93% (P = .4176), and 76% versus 73% (P = .4029), respectively. The overall survival (OS; 5-year rates were 64% versus 62%; P = .4812) and progression-free survival (PFS; 5-year rates were 67% versus 63%; P = .3829) rates also showed no significant differences. The acute and late toxicities were similar between both groups. CONCLUSION: Altered fractionated and conventional fractionated RT achieved similar survival outcome when concurrent CRT strategy was used for advanced NPC.
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the long-term survivals between altered fractionated and conventional fractionated radiotherapy with the same concurrent chemoradiotherapy (concurrent CRT) for patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 203 patients with NPC who received radiotherapy (RT) by either a conventional fractionated (70-74 Gy/35-37 fractions/7-8 weeks) or altered fractionated (72-75 Gy/45 fractions/6 weeks) schedule plus the same concurrent CRT. RESULTS: The patient characteristics between conventional fractionated and altered fractionated groups showed similar distribution. The 5-year rates of nasopharyngeal failure-free, neck failure-free, and distant metastasis failure-free survival between conventional fractionated and altered fractionated groups were 88% versus 86% (P = .7781), 95% versus 93% (P = .4176), and 76% versus 73% (P = .4029), respectively. The overall survival (OS; 5-year rates were 64% versus 62%; P = .4812) and progression-free survival (PFS; 5-year rates were 67% versus 63%; P = .3829) rates also showed no significant differences. The acute and late toxicities were similar between both groups. CONCLUSION: Altered fractionated and conventional fractionated RT achieved similar survival outcome when concurrent CRT strategy was used for advanced NPC.