Randomized Trial of Radiotherapy Versus Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy Followed by Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients With American Joint Committee on Cancer/International Union Against Cancer Stage III and IV Nasopharyngeal Cancer of the Endemic Variety

Distant metastasis occurred in 38 patients on RT alone and 18 patients on CRT. The difference in 2-year cumulative incidence was 17% (95% CI, 14% to 20%; P = .0029). The hazard ratio (HR) for disease-free survival was 0.57 (95% CI, 0.38 to 0.87; P = .0093). The 2- and 3-year overall survival (OS) rates were 78% and 85% and 65% and 80% for RT alone and CRT, respectively. The HR for OS was 0.51 (95% CI, 0.31 to 0.81; P = .0061).

This report confirms the findings of the Intergroup 00-99 Trial and demonstrates its applicability to endemic NPC. This study also confirms that chemotherapy improves the distant metastasis control rate in NPC.