Research progress on dose-escalation at late-course of radiotherapy for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients with residual lesion / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common head and neck malignant tumor with high incidence in southern China. Local recurrence is one of the main failure modes of locally advanced NPC. The dose-escalation after radical radiotherapy for locally advanced NPC remains controversial. In the era of modern radiotherapy, the mainstream treatment mode of locally advanced NPC is neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy. There is no consensus on whether to prescribe dose-escalation, how and when to conduct dose-escalation, how much dose to prescribe for patients with residual lesion proved by MRI or pathology. How to accurately determine the target volume and dose / fraction to maximize the local control of the tumor are the directions of clinical practice for locally advanced NPC, which remain to be further studied.