Prognosis and histology in Stage I nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)

During 1969-1975, 212 new patients with Stage I nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) with a tumor apparently confined to the nasopharynx were treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The initial histologies of 137 patients were available for review and further studies. The primary tumors were histologically classified into two major types--squamous cell carcinoma (35 patients) and undifferentiated carcinoma (102 patients). The latter was further divided into 4 sub-types: lymphoepithelioma of the Schmincke type, lymphoepithelioma of the Regaud type, spindle cell carcinoma, and undifferentiated carcinoma of the nasopharyngeal type. Such histological typing of the initial tumor was not of value in predicting the clinical outcome, whether in terms of 5-year crude or disease-free survival rate, or the tendency of the tumor to develop recurrence at the primary site, or distant metastases after a standardized course of radiation therapy. There is no significant correlation between the extent of mononuclear infiltration nor fibrosis in the tumor stroma and the survival or tumor control rates.