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. 2018 Jan 31;18(1):114.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-018-4003-8.

Pretreatment quality of life as a predictor of survival for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with IMRT

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Pretreatment quality of life as a predictor of survival for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with IMRT

Shan-Shan Guo et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: To evaluate the prognostic significance of pretreatment quality of life for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy.

Methods: We performed a prospective, longitudinal study on 554 newly diagnosed patients with NPC from April 2011 to January 2015. A total of 501 consecutive NPC patients were included. Patients were asked to complete the EORTC QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) and QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires before treatment.

Results: Global health status among QLQ-C30 correlates with EBV DNA(P = 0.019). In addition, pretreatment appetite loss was significantly correlated with EBV DNA(P = 0.02). Pretreatment teeth, opening mouth, feeding tube was significantly correlated with EBV DNA, with P value of 0.003, < 0.0001, and 0.031, respectively. In multivariate analysis, pretreatment cognitive functioning of QLQ-C30 was significantly associated with LRFS, with HR of 0.971(95%CI 0.951-0.990), P = 0.004. Among scales of QLQ-H&N35 for multivariate analysis, pretreatment teeth (P = 0.026) and felt ill (P = 0.012) was significantly associated with PFS, with HR of 0.984 (95%CI 0.971-.998) and 1.004 (95%CI 1.001-1.007), respectively. Felt ill of QLQ-H&N35 was significantly associated with DMFS, with HR of 1.004(95%CI 1.000-1.007), P = 0.043. There is no QoL scale significantly associated with OS after multivariate analysis.

Conclusions: In conclusion, our analysis confirms that pretreatment teeth and felt ill was significantly associated with PFS in NPC patients treated with IMRT. In addition, the posttreatment EBV DNA was significantly associated with OS.

Keywords: EBV DNA; Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Prognostic factor; Quality of life; Survival.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the clinical research ethics committee of the Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center(B2011–004-01), and the participants provided written informed consent.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distant metastasis free survival according to pretreatment felt ill score of QLQ-H&N35 questionnaire among 501 patients with NPC analysed by Kaplan-Meire and log-rank method
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Loco regional recurrence free survival according to pretreatment cognitive functioning score of QLQ-C30 questionnaire among 501 patients with NPC analysed by Kaplan-Meire and log-rank method
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Progression free survival according to pretreatment teeth score of QLQ-H&N35 questionnaire among 501 patients with NPC analysed by Kaplan-Meire and log-rank method
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Progression free survival according to pretreatment felt ill score of QLQ-H&N35 questionnaire among 501 patients with NPC analysed by Kaplan-Meire and log-rank method

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