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. 2021 Aug;43(8):2423-2433.
doi: 10.1002/hed.26706. Epub 2021 May 3.

Local treatment of metastases plus systemic chemotherapy on overall survival of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Wenjun Liao  1 , Jinlan He  1 , Qiheng Gou  1 , Baofeng Duan  1 , Ping Ai  1 , Lei Liu  1 , Yanchu Li  1 , Kexing Ren  1 , Min Yao  2 , Nianyong Chen  1
Affiliations

Local treatment of metastases plus systemic chemotherapy on overall survival of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Wenjun Liao et al. Head Neck. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Background: To investigate the effect of local treatment of metastases on overall survival (OS) of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods: One hundred and forty-seven patients were included. The association between local treatment and OS was examined with propensity score matching (PSM) method.

Results: In entire cohort, the median OS was significantly longer in patients with local treatment of metastases plus chemotherapy compared to those with chemotherapy alone (71.7 vs. 16.2 months; p < 0.001). In PSM cohort, similar OS benefit of patients with local treatment was observed (55.6 vs. 17.6 months; p = 0.011). The survival benefit of local treatment remained regardless of the number of metastatic lesions and metastatic sites. Patients received radiation doses of >60 Gy had longer OS than those who received less.

Conclusions: Local treatment of metastases could improve OS of patients with metastatic NPC and could be considered in their treatment in addition to chemotherapy.

Keywords: chemotherapy; distant metastasis; local treatment; nasopharyngeal carcinoma; radiotherapy.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flowchart for patient selection. NPC, nasopharyngeal carcinoma; PSM, propensity score matching; RT, radiotherapy; WCH, West China Hospital
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Overall survival curves stratified by treatment modalities in the entire cohort (A) and PSM cohort (B). CT + LT, chemotherapy and local treatment of metastases; CT, chemotherapy [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Overall survival curves stratified by treatment modalities in different number of metastatic lesions or metastatic sites: ≤five lesions (A) and ≥six lesions (B); single site (C) and ≥two sites (D). CT + LT, chemotherapy and local treatment of metastases; CT, chemotherapy [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Overall survival curves stratified by treatment modalities and different radiation doses. Doses were converted to equivalent dose in 2 Gy per fractionation (EQD2) assuming an α/β ratio of 10 for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. CT, chemotherapy [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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