Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6055146 | Oral Oncology | 2011 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
We investigated the effect of retropharyngeal nodal volumes (RNV) on distant metastasis in patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). From February 2000 to June 2006, a total of 181 patients with biopsy-proven NPC, no distant metastasis, and available pre-treatment magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were retrospectively reviewed. Most of the patients (95.6%) had stage III/IV diseases. The contour of retropharyngeal nodes ⩾5 mm was delineated on the axial slides of pre-treatment T2-weighted MRI without contrast enhancement. The RNV was calculated by the Eclipse⢠treatment planning software. The primary end-points were subsequent distant failure rates and distant metastasis failure-free survival (DMFFS). The pre-treatment RNV in patients who developed distant failure was higher than in those without distant failure (P = 0.0536). The distant failure rates between the patients with RNV > and ⩽4.68 cm3 were 33.3% and 16.0%, respectively (P = 0.0112). The rates of 7-year DMFFS in patients with RNV > and ⩽4.68 cm3 were 66.4% and 83.5%, respectively (P = 0.0043). Multivariate Cox analysis showed N-stage (P < 0.001), gender (P = 0.026), and RNV (P = 0.088) were important predictors for DMFFS. We conclude that the RNV measured by MRI is a potential predictor of distant metastasis in patients with advanced NPC.
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Authors
Kuan-Wen Chen, Wen-Yi Wang, Wen-Miin Liang, Chih-Wen Twu, Jeffrey Y.C. Chao, Kai-Li Liang, Ching-Te Wu, Rong-San Jiang, Yi-Ting Shih, Jin-Ching Lin,