Background & objective: Nasopharynx is one of the common extranodal involved site in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.However,no standard treatment regimen ever established for nasopharyngeal lymphoma(NPL). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the clinical characteristics and treatment results of NPL.
Methods: The authors reviewed the records of 75 NPL patients who were managed from June 1976 to August 2001 in Cancer Center,Sun Yat-sen University,to evaluate the influence of clinical characteristics and treatment modality on survival.
Results: Limited stage disease ( I/ II) was present in 90.8% of the NPL patients. The most common pathological type was intermediate grade(95.2%) and the most common immune phenotype was B-cell lineage (68.6%). These patients were treated with chemotherapy plus radiotherapy (64%),chemotherapy alone (23%),and radiotherapy alone (14%),respectively. The 2-, 5-, and 10-year overall survival rates were 79.1%, 69.8%, and 64.3%, respectively. For the patients who treated with stranded CHOP (cyclophosphamide + hydroxydaunomycin + Oncovin + prednisone) chemotherapy regimen. The 2-,5-,10-year overall survival rates were 84.6%. However, the patients treated with radiotherapy alone were associated with poor survival, 5 year survival was 0. There was no significant difference in the survival between patients treated with CHOP alone or CHOP plus radiotherapy. There was also no difference in the survival between radiotherapy dosage <or=50 Gy and >50 Gy.
Conclusion: The treatment modality for NPL should include systemic chemotherapy with CHOP regimen. Whether additional local radiotherapy is necessary,and the optimal radiation dosage warrant prospective randomized trial.