• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.183-188
• /
• 1990

Between January 197l and December 1987, 113 patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) were treated by radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy in the department of Radiation Oncology, Yonsei University Hospital. There were 19 patients under thirty years of age. The histology was undifferentiated carcinoma in $68\%$ of the younger patients as compared to $47\%$ of the older patients. Sex, stage, initial symptoms and treatment modalities differed little from those of older patients. In younger patients, the initial complete response rate was $79\%$ as compared to older patients with $54\%$, distant metastases were more common and the overall five year survival rate was not significantly different between the two age groups ($33.7\%$ for the young vs. $37.4\%$ for the old). The five year survival rates for stage III and IV were $60.0\%$ and $24.5\%$, respectively. Histologic subtype was not correlated with survival. The best survival was found only in patients who obtained a complete clearance of disease after radiation therapy.