RESUMO
BACKGROUND: To explore the efficacy and patterns of treatment failure of radical radiotherapy in newly diagnosed oligo-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. METHODS: We included 39 newly diagnosed oligo-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who received radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital. Treatment and prognosis information were collected. The Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate survival rates and analyze prognostic factors. RESULTS: After a median follow-up time of 38 months, the 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates were 97, 70, and 57.9%, while the 1-, 3-, and 5-year progression-free survival rates were 87, 59, and 50.9%, respectively. Age, numbers of metastases lesions, cycles, and schemes of chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors of the overall survival. Patients with no more than three metastasis lesions had a higher survival rate than those with ≥ 3 metastatic lesions (P = 0.023). More than four cycles chemotherapy provide a higher survival rate than less than four cycles. Chemotherapy including docetaxel had a significantly survival advantages (P = 0.041). CONCLUSION: Radical radiotherapy is important for newly diagnosed oligo-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients, which can still achieve long-term survival after chemo-radiotherapy.