Malignant nasopharyngeal tumours. Result of radiation therapy.

A material of 61 malignant nasopharyngeal tumours were treated during the 10-year period 1959-1968. The primary tumour was in most cases treated with a supervoltage technique and the neck node regions were irradiated only when lymph metastases were found. The crude 5-year survival in the whole series was 43% and the symptom-free 5-year survival 34%. If the rare tumour types were excluded (plasmocytoma and salivary gland type adenocarcinoma) the corresponding figures were 41 and 33%, respectively. The retrospective analysis did not indicate that prophylactic neck irradiation could have increased the cure rate.