A retrospective study of the use of cisplatinum-5-fluorouracil neoadjuvant chemotherapy in cervical-node-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

A retrospective study on 422 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients with cervical nodal metastases treated between 1984 and 1987 was performed. 169 received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (CHEMO) with cisplatinum and 5-fluorouracil for two or three courses prior to definitive radiotherapy and 253 were treated by radical radiotherapy alone (NCHEMO). While the primary tumour (T-stage) prognosticators had been comparable between the two groups, CHEMO had significantly more advanced cervical nodal metastases with bulkier nodes and more low-cervical and supraclavicular nodes (P < 0.05) which could account for its overall worse survival, poorer regional tumour control and a trend towards worse systemic tumour control. The worse regional control in CHEMO for Ho's N1 could be the result of more bulky nodes and more tumours infiltrating the skull base and/or causing cranial nerve(s) palsy. There was no statistical or apparent difference between CHEMO and NCHEMO for the same Ho's overall stages of NPC with comparable nodal and primary tumour characteristics for the clinical endpoints of actuarial survival rate (ASR), disease-free survival rate (DFS), free of local failure survival rate (FLF), and free from distant metastases survival rate (FDM), despite the presence of significantly more fixed nodes and bulky nodes. This suggests a possible beneficial effect of the neoadjuvant chemotherapy. However, multivariate analysis has not shown the administration of the neoadjuvant chemotherapy to be of prognostic significance. Even though the chemotherapy was well tolerated with little toxicity, we recommend against the routine use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in cervical-node-positive NPC outside the context of a prospective randomised clinical trial.