What method is used to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma? Is surgery the main method?

What are the treatments for nasopharyngeal carcinoma? Is surgery the most important method?

The treatment principles for nasopharyngeal carcinoma vary according to the stage, mainly including:

Stage I: Radical radiotherapy with external beam radiation or external beam radiation followed by loading;

Phase II: Radical radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy is in the clinical research stage.

Stage III/IV M0: Comprehensive treatment of radiotherapy and chemotherapy is mainly based on cisplatin-based synchronous radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and other chemotherapy and combinations are under clinical research; radiotherapy, chemotherapy and molecular targeted therapy such as epidermal growth factor are under clinical research.

M1 stage: Chemotherapy is the main treatment. Hyperthermia can be performed on large cervical lymph nodes at the same time. If there is no change or progression of residual lesions after radical radiotherapy for 2-3 months, zonal neck washing or residual lymph node resection can be considered.

Detailed description of the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Since pathological examinations are mostly poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, the recognized first-choice treatment method is radiotherapy. Conventional radiotherapy has many complications, and three-dimensional conformal or enhanced radiotherapy is recommended. The total irradiation dose of the nasopharynx is 66-70Gy/6.5-7. The radical dose for patients with positive cervical lymph nodes is 56-60Gy per week, and the preventive irradiation dose for negative cervical lymph nodes is 46-50Gy. During radiotherapy, chemotherapy, traditional Chinese medicine and immunotherapy can be used to improve the efficacy. For some patients with advanced stage and recurrence after radiotherapy, as well as a few adenocarcinomas and well-differentiated squamous cell carcinomas that are less sensitive to radiation, comprehensive treatment methods such as chemotherapy and surgery can be used.