Identifying optimal candidates for postoperative adjuvant therapy among regional persistent/recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients after neck dissection

Table 4 Summary of the multivariable analyses of prognostic factors in high risk cohort

Characteristic	B	Hazard ratio (95% CI)	P
Progression-free survival
Sex	1.015	2.760(1.362–5.594)	0.005
Bilaterality	-1.292	0.275(0.084–0.894)	0.032
ECS	0.725	2.065(1.157–3.683)	0.014
Status of lymph node	0.582	1.789(1.004–3.186)	0.048
Overall survival
Sex	1.464	4.323(1.462–12.780)	0.008
ECS	1.470	4.350(1.830–10.339)	0.001
Status of lymph node	0.900	2.461(1.190–5.088)	0.015
Loco-regional relapse-free survival
preoperative EBV DNA level	0.724	2.062(1.003–4.240)	0.049
ECS	1.024	2.784(1.351–5.735)	0.005
Distant metastasis-free survival
Type of treatment	0.210	0.616(0.408–0.931)	0.021

Abbreviations: CI confidence interval
HRs and p values were calculated using an adjusted multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model, Age (y) (> 45 vs. ≤ 45); Sex (M vs. F); rN stage (1–2 vs. 3); EBV DNA (> 0 vs. 0 copy/ml); PLNs (> 2 vs. ≤ 2); ECS (yes vs. no); surgical methods (SND vs. RND); Bilaterality (unilateral vs. bilateral); Status of lymph node (Recurrence vs. Residual); Maximal diameter of LNs (> 20 mm vs. ≤ 20 mm); Type of treatment (surgery with postoperative treatment vs. surgery alone) were included as covariates. Variables were selected with the backward stepwise approach, and the p value threshold was 0.1 (p > 0.1) for removing insignificant variables from the model. Only variables significantly associated with survival were presented, and marginally significant variables (0.05 < p < 0.1) were remained in the final Cox model but not presented in the table
EBV Epstein–Barr virus, PLN positive lymph node, ECS extracapsular spread RND radical neck dissection, SND selective neck dissection

ISSN: 1471-2407