| Author: | Mak, King-chung Anthony |
| Title: | A review of stereotactic radiotherapy booster after conventional radiotherapy for Ho's T3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Subject: | Nasopharynx -- Cancer -- Radiotherapy Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Optometry and Radiography |
| Pages: | v, 43 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the commonest cancers in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has throughout the years earned great fame in effective treatment of this disease. In the Prince of Wales Hospital, Teo et al. (1996 & 2000) found 78.8% of the cases to be free from local recurrence following conventional radiotherapy. In 1997, a stereotactic radiotherapy system was installed in the department. The advantage of stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) is its precision in the delivery of high radiation dose to the tumor while the surrounding tissue is spared. In so doing, better tumor control might be achieved and this improves the treatment result. Twenty-seven eligible cases have received treatment with this new treatment technique, following conventional treatment, and have been evaluated in this study. The main objective of this study was to explore the initial response of these patients to treatment, as compared to those treated by conventional treatment alone. The overall local control by SRT was 92.6% as compared to 72% by conventional treatment alone. The disease free survival was 66.7% against the conventional survival of 66.2%. The overall survival was, however, poorer, i.e. 77.8% by SRT to 86.3% by conventional treatment. By comparing the sample with the historical cohort of patients published by Teo et al. (1996), it was found that the apparent improvement in local control by SRT was borderline (0.05 < p < 0.1) in significance (p=0.0897). The disease free survival was also marginal (p=0.0792) after SRT and metastatic free survivals were similar (p=0.7522) for the sample cohort. It appeared that even if SRT booster improved local control, the prognosis of the patients was little enhanced. Taking into account the small sample size and short follow-up interval, it was unfair to make any concluding statement on the findings. Meanwhile, it could not be undermined that inadequate local control would lead to local recurrence and distant metastasis later, so any chance that could improve local control should be grasped. On the other hand, the data revealed about = 20% increases in local control for the N0/1 group and =50% for N2 and N3 groups. These were impressive results, suggesting SRT might be beneficial for advanced T-tumors. In so saying, SRT boost might still be tried under a clinical trial setting for the treatment of NPC even though it was not significant statistically for the mean time. For more reliable measurements on the effect of SRT and for more conclusive and elaborative findings, it is suggested to perform a further review about 2 years later on a larger group of patients treated with SRT. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b1602848x.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.96 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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