Effective Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in Children

Abstract

All patients achieved a complete response 4 to 16 months from the start of therapy (median 7 months). Nine patients have remained tumor free from 2 to 21 years (median 11 years) from diagnosis. One child was lost to follow-up and one died of tuberculosis; both were disease-free. One child developed a secondary osteosarcoma in the left mandible. Chemotherapy caused grade 4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia in four patients. There were no therapy-related deaths and the most common late effect of therapy was neck fibrosis, which was observed in all patients. We conclude that the chemotherapy and radiotherapy regimen used in this study is highly effective for children and adolescents with locally advanced NPC and is associated with tolerable toxicity.