88. Comparison results of different strategies of radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Aim : Evaluation results of radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma in years; 1980–1990 (before CT era) vs 1991–1995. Material/methods : One hundred eighty eight patients treated in our centre were included in this analysis. Two groups of patients were distinguished: I-st – 128 patients (treated between 1980–1990) and II-nd – 60 (treated between 1991–1995). The possibilities of diagnosis and radiotherapy techniques were diffrent in both groups. In the II-nd group; the shrinking field technique, CT in diagnosis and target delineation and also higher total dose (mean 66 Gy) were applied. Results : For all patients 5-years disease free-survival was 30%. During follow-up the first two years were crucial, because 80% of failures occured. The causes of failures were as follow: the local recurrence (43%), metastases to lymph nodes (39%) and distant metastases (18%). Conclusions : Introducing CT into diagnosis and target delineation, the shrinking field technique and higher total dose of irradiation caused in improvement of results of radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.