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Bulletin du Cancer

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Evaluation of tumoral and lymphnode response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma Volume 84, issue 3, Mars 1997

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Authors
Service de cancérologie médicale, CHU Habib Bourguiba, 3029 Sfax, Tunisie.

Between January 1994 and June 1995, 19 cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, classified N2-N3 (AJC/UICC 1987) were treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy including cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on day 1 and epirubicin 80 mg/m2 on day 1. Following course started on day 21. A clinical and scannographic evaluation was made after 3 courses of chemotherapy. Fifty-eight percent of the patients were N3. Seventy-four percent were T3-T4. Tolerance to chemotherapy was good in 100% of the cases. A functional improvement was obtained in 14 among 16 patients who were initially symptomatic. For lymph nodes, an objective response (OR) was observed in all patients. The response was complete (CR) in 53%. A regression of primary tumor was obtained in 68% of the patients, but it was complete in 16% only. Sixty-nine percent of the patients who have a tumoral OR have a lymph node CR. Ninety percent of the patients with a complete lymph node response have a tumoral regression more than 50%. A correlation seems likely between the importance of the tumoral and the lymph node responses.