Clinical Characteristics of Recurrent Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in High-Incidence Area

BACKGROUND To describe the clinical characteristics of the patients who suffered from relapse after conventional irradiation for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). METHODS Three hundred and fifty-one consecutive patients with first-time recurrent NPC between January 1999 and July 2005 were included. The patients' clinical data were reviewed, including recurrent interval time, symptoms, signs, imaging characteristics, pathologic features, and restaging. RESULTS The median interval of relapse was 26.0 months. The most common symptoms in symptomatic patients were nasal bloody discharge (37.9%) and headache (31.1%). Local recurrence alone accounted for 73.5%. Most patients were restaged as stage III (23.1%) and stage IV (51.1%). Subgroup analysis suggested a significantly higher proportion of the long-latent relapses originated from early primary. A series of postreirradiation complications were more frequent in patients with longer latency at reception. CONCLUSIONS Most recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma is advanced disease. Patients with different recurrent interval time show different nature behavior.