valuating Therapy Results and Analysis of Immediate and Long-term Treatment Toxicity in a Clinical Case Series of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Introduction and objective: Nasopharyngeal carcinomas differ from other head and neck tumors. Patients have a higher rate of survival and thereby have a higher chance of presenting late toxicity, affecting their quality of life. We have tried to evaluate the most relevant late toxicities. Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis in a series of 58 patients diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma between 1987 and 2014. The non-epithelial histological types were excluded from the study. We analyzed late toxicity and survival using SPSS version 19. Results: We included 58 patients, 93,1% of whom presented locally advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. The predominant subtype was found to be undifferentiated carcinoma. The treatment response rate was 91,2% (75,4% complete response and 15,8% partial response). The relapse rate was 35,1% (35% local relapse and 65% systemic relapse). The median disease-free survival was 150 months and the mean global survival was 224 months (168-279). Conclusions: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is usually diagnosed in a locally advanced stage. Treatment is based on the use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, obtaining a high response rate. Currently, there is large group of survivors, whose quality of life is severely affected by late toxicity.