Purpose: To find a prognostic factor for patients with oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) who were followed for long term after definitive radiotherapy.
Methods: OPC patients that had been treated with radiotherapy at our institution were reviewed. Sex, age, performance status (PS), subsite, disease stage, T-stage, N-stage, RT dose, concurrent chemotherapy, the duration of RT, hemoglobin concentration before any treatment, and a double cancer were assessed for their impact on overall survival (OS) and locoregional control (LRC).
Results: Among a total of 141 patients enrolled into this retrospective study, the disease of most patients (81%) was stage III or IV. The median follow-up time of the surviving patients was 56 months (range 5-175 months). Radiotherapy was administered in conventional fractionation, and the median RT dose was 66 Gy. Most patients (90%) received systemic chemotherapy. The 5-year estimates of progression-free survival, LRC, and OS were 66.0, 72.7, and 65.1%, respectively. In the univariate analysis, LRC and OS in the lateral wall at the primary site, T-stage <or=3, and PS <or=1 groups were significantly superior to those in the other groups, and OS in age <or=60 or the hemoglobin level >13.0 g/dL groups were also significantly superior to those in the other groups. In the multivariate analysis, age and T-stage remained significant factors for OS.
Conclusions: Primary radiotherapy was recommended for OPC patients with the lateral wall at the primary site because of good LRC. The treatment method to the older population and T4 tumor is future tasks.