Comparison Of Weekly Versus Three-Weekly Cisplatin Concurrent Chemotherapy With Radiation Therapy For Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective We aimed to compare the efficacy of weekly and 3-weekly cisplatin concurrent chemotherapy with radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Materials and Methods Respectively analyzed 68 selected nas--ophaynge carcinoma patients with stage â…¡-â…£a-b from January 2009 to December 2010.27 cases treated by weekly DDP concurrent chemotherapy: cisplatin 30-40mg/m2 intravenously weekly for 7 weeks.41 cases treated by 3-weekly DDP concurrent chemotherapy:cisplatin 80mg/m2 intravenous drip on average on 3 days,21 days for one cycle,2-3 cycles. The dose and technology of radiotherapy were similar between two groups.Result The 5-year overall survival rate,5-year progression-free survival rate,5-year local-regional recurrence-free survival rate and 5-year distant metastasis-free rate between cisplatin delivered weekly and 3-weekly were 91.3% vs 89.7%,80.8% vs 80.0%,88.2% vs 92.7%,88.1% vs 87.1%; although there were no statistical significance (P> 0.05), the 5-year local-regional recurrence-free rate of 3-weekly chemotherapy regimen had a tendency advantage over weekly chemotherapy regimen. The acute bloody toxicity and nutrition imbalance between two chemoradiotherapy regimens were similar, with no statistical significance.Conclusion The long-term efficacy and acute toxicity between the weekly DDP chemoradiotherapy and 3-weekly DDP chemoradiotherapy were similar for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.