[Prognosis and treatment for 98 patients with carcinoma of nasal cavity]

Carcinoma of nasal cavity is a rare disease without standard treatment. This study was designed to evaluate treatment outcome, and prognostic factors of patients with carcinoma of nasal cavity.

Records of 98 patients with carcinoma of nasal cavity were reviewed,43 patients received radiotherapy alone, 55 patients received surgery plus radiotherapy. Survival analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meier method,differences between groups were tested by log-rank test,multivariate analysis was carried out by Cox proportional hazard model.

The overall 5-, and 10-year survival rates were 65.3%, and 37.1%. The 5-, and 10-year survival rates of patients with tumor of stage I, II were 87.3%, and 51.1%, those of patients with tumor of stage III, IV were 56.1%, and 32.2% (P=0.02). The patients with squamous cell carcinoma had lower survival rates than those with adenocarcinoma (P< 0.01). There was significant difference in survival rates between patients received radiotherapy alone and patients received radiotherapy plus surgery in advanced lesions (P=0.04) and in squamous cell carcinoma (P< 0.01), but not in early lesions (P=0.41) and in adenocarcinoma (P=0.73). Patients who were initially diagnosed cervical lymph node metastasis had a reduced survival rate compared with node-negative patients (P=0.01). In Cox's regression, clinical stage and node-positive were independent prognostic factors.

The criteria should be taken into account when choosing treatment method for patients with carcinoma of nasal cavity: radiotherapy plus surgery is preferred for advanced lesions and for squamous cell carcinoma, radiotherapy alone is better for early lesions and for adenocarcinoma. Clinical stage, and node-positive may be independent prognostic factors of patients with carcinoma of nasal cavity.