Background
cranial nerve (CN) palsy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma with cancer-related involvement of cranial nerve has been considered as an unfavorable prognostic factor for NPC. We assessed the role of IMRT based treatment modality on the recovery of CN and investigated the prognostic value of CN palsy recovery.
Methods
A total of 115 NPC patients with CN palsy were included in the study. We referred CTCAE version 5.0 to evaluate the grade of CN palsy.
Results
All patients with grade 1 CN palsy recovered completely during the 2 years of follow-up after definite treatment. Most grade 2 palsy could change gradually to grade 1 palsy or complete recovery during two years of follow-up. The 3-year DFS were 84.9% in patients experienced 1 or 2 symptom of CN palsy compared with 60.3% in patients with more than 2 symptoms of CN palsy (HR: 0.25, 95%CI: 0.07–0.89, P = 0.001).
Conclusions
IMRT based comprehensive treatment could effectively promote the recovery of tumor-related CN palsy in locoregionally advanced NPC.