Malignant nasopharyngeal tumours in Iceland

• Published in: Acta Oncologica
• Main Authors: Johannsson, J, Sveinsson, T, Agnarsson, B A, Skaftason, S
• Other Authors: Department of Oncology, Herlev Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2010
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; 80 and over; Carcinoma; Squamous Cell; Female; Humans; Iceland; Incidence; Male; Middle Aged; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms; Neoplasm Staging; Retrospective Studies
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/111414; https://doi.org/10.3109/02841869709001265

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field From 1965 to 1990, 46 cases of malignant nasopharyngeal tumours were diagnosed in Iceland. The incidence rate is as low as in other Western countries, 0.6/100,000 per year. Histo-pathological diagnosis were as follows: Undifferentiated carcinoma 45%; squamous cell carcinoma 30%; non-keratinizing carcinoma 7%; and plasmacytoma 9%; lymphoma 7%; rhabdomyosarcoma 2%. Four per cent were diagnosed at stage I, 13% at stage II, 29% at stage III and 54% at stage IV. The overall crude survival at 10 years from diagnosis was 28.3%. The following factors were found to have a prognostic value: Stage of disease, size of tumour (T-classification) and age at diagnosis. Nodal stage (N-classification) alone and sex were not found to be prognostic factors. There was no difference in survival among the different WHO types of cancer. Patients with carcinoma were all treated with radiotherapy. The survival of those who received more than 60 Gy was better than of those who received 60 Gy or less (p = 0.04).