Salvage Treatment for Locally Recurrent Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC)

Background: It is important to determine the outcomes of retreatment in patients with locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods: We reviewed the records of patients treated for local recurrence at Stanford and Shantou Universities. The end points were local relapse-free survival (LRFS) and overall survival after retreatment. Results: Fifty-six patients from Stanford and 98 from Shantou qualified. For the Stanford patients, 33 had surgery alone (S group), 12 had surgery plus radiotherapy±chemotherapy (CMT group), and 22 had radiotherapy±chemotherapy (RT Stanford group). All Shantou patients received radiotherapy±chemotherapy (RT Shantou group). The 5-year LRFS rates were: 57% for S group, 25% for CMT group, 53% for RT Stanford group, and 41% for RT Shantou group (P>0.05) for rT1-2 tumors; they were 29% for S group, 25% for CMT group, 39% for RT Stanford group, and 9% for RT Shantou group for rT3-4 tumors (P>0.05). For RT patients, 5-year overall survival rates were 49% for Stanford and 25% for Shantou patients (P=0.026). Conclusions: Similar and durable LRFS rates were attained for both S and RT groups when stratified by rT-stage.