Radiation Therapy Alone Compared to Radiation Therapy Plus Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Previously Untreated Cancer of the Nasopharynx

• Status: Unknown status
• Trial end date: 1969-12-31
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not yet known whether radiation therapy alone is more effective than radiation therapy plus chemotherapy in treating cancer of the nasopharynx.

PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying how well radiation therapy and chemotherapy works compared to radiation therapy alone in treating patients with previously untreated cancer of the nasopharynx.

• Phase: Phase 3
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: National Cancer Centre, Singapore
• Treatments: Fluorouracil

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed nasopharyngeal cancer that is previously untreated WHO Type III

• Stage III/IV (T3-4 Nx M0 or Tx N2-3 M0) confirmed by CT PNS

• No evidence of distant metastases detected on chest x-ray, bone scan, and liver ultrasound

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• Not specified

Performance status:

• ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• WBC greater than 3,000/mm^3

• Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

• SAP and SGOT less than 2 times upper limit of normal

• Bilirubin less than 1.4 mg/dL

Renal:

• Creatinine less than 1.6 mg/dL

• Creatinine clearance greater than 50 mL/min

Other:

• No other malignant disease

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Not specified

Chemotherapy

• Not specified

Endocrine therapy

• Not specified

Radiotherapy

• Not specified

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• See Disease Characteristics

• No concurrent aminoglycoside antibiotics