View clinical trials related to Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.
Filter by:Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a geographically endemic, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated carcinoma of epidermoid origin. It occurs most commonly in Southern China and Southeast Asia. The NPC cells are poorly differentiated or undifferentiated with a high incidence of lymphatic and hematological dissemination. Because of the inherent anatomic constraints and a high degree of radiosensitivity, radiotherapy (RT) has been the primary treatment for NPC patients. NPC is also a chemosensitive tumor. Various modes of combined chemoradiotherapy have been used to treat NPC patients with advanced-stage diseases during recent 20 years. However, treatment outcome for locoregionally advanced NPC is still unsatisfactory.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) differs from other head and neck malignancies in terms of its epidemiology, pathology, and treatment outcome . It is endemic in China and is one of the major public health problems. Concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy is the primary treatment for patients with NPC. Despite such aggressive treatment, many patients with locally advanced NPC still develop locally recurrent disease. Since local control is directly related to patient morbidity and mortality in NPC, there is a strong need to identify methods to further improve treatment outcome for NPC. One strategy to improve local control is to escalate the dose of radiotherapy. This is because local control has been shown to be directly related to the radiotherapy dose. Several different techniques, including brachytherapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, and dose-painting intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), have been used to increase radiotherapy dose. However, due to the large number of critical anatomic structures near the nasopharynx, dose-escalation in NPC can also lead to increased toxicities. One technique that has achieved dose-escalation with minimal increase in toxicity is simultaneous modulated accelerated radiation therapy (SMART). The main challenge for such treatment is to identify the appropriate tumor volume to receive the high-dose radiotherapy. Conventional dose-escalation is conducted using computed tomography (CT) to identify the gross tumor volume (GTV). However, recent progress with F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG-PET/CT) in treatment planning allows more accurate tumor volume delineation. We hypothesize that the use of PET/CT in treatment planning can improve dose-escalation radiotherapy for NPC which in turn can improve therapeutic efficacy while reducing toxicity. PET/CT imaging of tissue hypoxia using [F-18]fluoromisonidazole (FMISO), the most widely used nitroimidazole imaging agent.Given that there has been no clinical trials directly comparing conventional chemoradiotherapy to CT-guided dose-escalation chemoradiotherapy or PET/CT guided dose-escalation chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced NPC.This was a study to evaluate the role of FMISO-PET hypoxia imaging for predicting survival in NPC,our study aims to compare the local control, overall survival and toxicities of the three treatment regimens..