Prognostic factors in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated in Hospital Kuala Lumpur

Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is the third most common cancer among men in Peninsular Malaysia.However, no information is available about the prognostic factors. The objective of this study was to identifyfactors with an influence on outcome in patients treated in Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Methods: A total of 159patients with non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated during 2002-2003 in Hospital Kuala Lumpurwere included in this study. All received radiotherapy. Fifty three patients were treated with radiotherapy alone,while 106 patients received combination chemotherapy. Overall survival and local recurrence-free survival wereanalyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and univariate analysis was performed using the log-rank test. Results:This study found out that 5-year overall survival and 5-year local recurrence-free survival rates were 58.6% and54.2% respectively. The stage specific 5-year overall survival rates were: Stage I, 100%; Stage II; 93.3%, StageIII, 62.7%; Stage IVA, 42.2%; and Stage IVB, 40.6%. On univariate analysis, gender (p<0.05), T-classification(p< 0.001), N-classification (p<0.05), stage (p<0.05) and cranial nerve involvement (p< 0.001) were found to besignificant prognostic factors for 5-year overall survival, while gender (p<0.05) and N-classification (p<0.05)were significant prognostic factors for 5-year local recurrence-free survival. Conclusion: The overall survivalrate of patients for this study was low. The patient factor that significantly affected 5-year overall survival wasgender, while disease factors were stage, T-classification, N-classification and cranial nerve involvement.