Nasopharyngeal cancers, an overview on behalf of the French Intergroupe ORL/GORTEC

Cancer of the nasopharynx is an un- common malignancy in France (incidence = 0.5/year/ 100,000 men) but is endemic in areas like in South- East Asia. Exclusive radiation therapy used to be the standard and results in local control rates for T3-T4 tumors around 50-75 %. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) improves tumor coverage with a sparing of organs at risk and has to be privileged. Concurrent chemotherapy with IMRT achieved signifi- cant survival benefice with 5-year overall survival above 75 %. Concurrent radiochemotherapy with platinium is the most frequent scheme but induction and adjuvant chemotherapies are discussed to reduce distant failure: studies are currently ongoing. Follow-up aims to detect early local failures with a chance of cure and to manage long-term toxicities.