Late Toxicities And Quality Of Life For Long-Term Survivors Of Ascending Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Treated With Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy

Objective: To evaluate the late toxicity and quality of life(Qo L)of patients with ascending nasopharyngeal carcinoma cancer-free survival more than 5 years after intensity-modulated radiotherapy(IMRT),and to study the influencing factors of late toxicity and Qo L of long-term survival patients with ascending nasopharyngeal carcinoma after IMRT.Methods: The clinical data of patients with ascending nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with IMRT±chemotherapy from August2014 to December 2016 were analysed.42 patients met the criteria for admission.The following late toxicities were documented based on the CTCAE v.4.0: neuropathy,hearing loss,dysphagia and xerostomia.The EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-H&N35 were used to evaluate the patients’ Qo L.Chi-square test was used to classify the general clinical data,t-test or nonparametric test was used to analyze the continuous variables,logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of late toxicity,and Multivariable linear regression was used to analyze the factors affecting quality of life.All the statistical tests were bilateral tests,and P<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Results: The average age of 42 patients with ascending nasopharyngeal carcinoma was 47.24 years(±11.08 years).The incidences of late toxifies were hearing loss(54.6%),xerostomia(52.4%),dysphagia(30.9%)and neuropathy(4.8%),respectively.The hearing loss of grade 3 and above in the IC+CCRT group was significantly higher than that in the IC+IMRT group(35.7% VS 25%,P=0.032).Spearman correlation analysis showed that age and years of education were positively correlated with quality of life,while gender,T classification,clinical stage,treatment mode,hearingloss and dysphagia were negatively correlated with quality of life.The factors affecting the quality of life were gender,years of education,T classification,clinical stage,treatment mode and hearing loss.Conclusions: Patients with ascending nasopharyngeal carcinoma who received IC+IMRT had a better Qo L than IC+CCRT.Sex,education level,T classification,clinical stage,mode of treatment,and hearing loss above grade3 affected patients’ Qo L with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.