Survival of stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients with or without concurrent chemotherapy: A propensity score matching study

Abstract

Background: To ascertain if concurrent chemotherapy (CCT) benefits people with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated with two-dimensional radiotherapy (2DRT) or intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Methods: A total of 4157 patients diagnosed with stage II NPC were evaluated. Patients received radiotherapy (RT) with/without CCT. Patients were divided into 2DRT and IMRT subgroups. After propensity score matching, the role of CCT was explored in these two subgroups. Overall survival (OS) was the primary endpoint and progression-free survival (PFS), locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) were secondary endpoints. Results: In the 2DRT subgroup, CCT addition to RT benefited cases with T1N1/T2N1 in OS, PFS and LRFS (P