Palliative Chemotherapy and Targeted Therapy for Recurrent and Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Reminiscences and the Future

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma of undifferentiated type is an endemic cancer with a high incidence in Southern China, Taiwan, and Singapore, followed by North African countries and Alaska. Despite intensive definitive treatment, regrettably about 30% of patients still suffer from loco-regional relapse or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hong Kong journal of radiology : HKJR = Xianggang fang she ke yi xue za zhi 2013-12, Vol.16 (4), p.252-260
Main Authors: Lee, VHF, Kwong, DLW
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cancer
Chemotherapy
Immunotherapy
Metastasis
Throat cancer
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Summary:Nasopharyngeal carcinoma of undifferentiated type is an endemic cancer with a high incidence in Southern China, Taiwan, and Singapore, followed by North African countries and Alaska. Despite intensive definitive treatment, regrettably about 30% of patients still suffer from loco-regional relapse or even distant metastasis. Palliative chemotherapy has been the standard treatment for those whose disease is not amenable to further radical surgery or a second course of radiotherapy. Though mainly given with palliative intent, this form of chemotherapy can achieve excellent symptom control and prolong survival. More recently targeted therapy has also been widely evaluated in metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Here we provide a comprehensive review on the use of various types of palliative chemotherapy and targeted therapy for recurrent and metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma by searching the MEDLINE and PubMed databases from 1980 to March 2013. The key words used were “nasopharyngeal”, “nasopharynx”, “recurrent”, “metastatic”, “chemotherapy”, “targeted therapy”, and “immunotherapy”.
ISSN:2223-6619
2307-4620
DOI:10.12809/hkjr1313185