Between September 1977 and December 1989, 89 consecutive patients of nasopharyngeal carcinoma were treated with radiation therapy. The study comprised of 66 males and 23 females; their ages ranged from 17 to 80 years (mean 55 years). Five-year survival rates according to stage were as follows: stages I and II (n = 10), 90%; stage III (n = 10), 43%; stage IV (n = 69), 47%. The important prognostic factors for predicting poor prognostic in this series, which were shown by stepwise proportional hazard (Cox) model, were the level of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and neck node involvement. LDH level also influenced nodal failure (p = 0.0002) and distant metastasis (p = 0.006).