# Efficacy of salvage surgery versus re-irradiation for isolated regional lymph node recurrence in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

## TL;DR

This study compares surgery and re-irradiation for treating recurring lymph node cancer in the nose and throat, finding similar survival outcomes for both treatments.

## Contribution

The study provides new comparative evidence on treatment efficacy for isolated regional lymph node recurrence in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

## Key findings

- Surgery and re-irradiation showed no significant difference in 5-year overall survival rates.
- Age at recurrence, extra-nodal extension, and lymph node classification were key prognostic factors.
- rN3 classification was an adverse factor for survival in the surgery group.

## Abstract

To compare the clinical characteristics and prognoses of patients with isolated regional lymph node recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (irrNPC) who underwent surgery or re-irradiation treatment.

We retrospectively reviewed 124 irrNPC patients who underwent initial radiotherapy between January 2010 and December 2020. The staging of regional lymph node recurrence was as follows: 75.8% for rN1, 14.5% for rN2, and 9.7% for rN3. Fifty-five patients underwent regional lymph node surgery (Surgery group), and sixty-nine patients received salvage radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy (Re-irradiation group). The survival rate was compared using Kaplan‒Meier analysis and evaluated by the log-rank test. Cox proportional hazard models were used to analyze prognostic factors.

The median follow-up time was 70 months, the 5-year overall survival (OS) was 74%, and the median survival time was 60.8 months. There were no significant differences in 5-year OS (75.6% vs. 72.4%, P = 0.973), regional recurrence-free survival (RRFS, 62.7% vs. 71.1%, P = 0.330) or distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS, 4.2% vs.78.7%, P = 0.677) between the Surgery group and Re-irradiation group. Multivariate analysis revealed age at recurrence, radiologic extra-nodal extension (rENE) status, and recurrent lymph node (rN) classification as independent prognostic factors for OS. The rENE status was an independent prognostic factor for DMFS. Subgroup analysis of the Surgery group revealed that the rN3 classification was an adverse prognostic factor for OS. Age at recurrence ≥ 50 years, GTV-N dose, and induction chemotherapy were found to be independent prognostic factors for OS, RRFS, and DMFS, respectively, in the Re-irradiation group.

For NPC patients with isolated regional lymph node recurrence after initial radiotherapy, those who underwent surgery had survival prognosis similar to those who underwent re-radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy. A prospective study is needed to validate these findings.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-024-12259-w.