Undifferentiated Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in Children: a report of four cases

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma in early stages in children is a highly curable neoplasm. The major cause of treatment failure is the development of distant metastases, predominantly in advanced stages. This paper reports about four young patients with undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with preradiation chemotherapy, locoregional radiotherapy and maintenance chemotherapy up to a total period of two years. Treating these four children, we noticed that preradiation chemotherapy caused satisfactory regression of the primary tumor. Three patients are still without signs of disease after 28 to 88 months and one died due to tumor progression. Further studies have to confirm our observations and support research in designing the optimal combination of effective chemotherapeutic agents and radiotherapy.