Table 1. Clinical characteristics of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
| Number of patients | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | Patients with serum at both initial diagnosis and after treatment | Patients with serum after treatment only | Summary of all patients |
| Total | 20 | 11 | 31 |
| Sex | |||
| male | 19 | 8 | 27 |
| female | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Age | |||
| range | 16–68 | 44–81 | 16–81 |
| mean | 56.3 | 60.1 | 57.6 |
| Tumor status | |||
| T1 | 7 | 4 | 11 |
| T2 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| T3 | 6 | 2 | 8 |
| T4 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| Nodal status | |||
| N0 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| N1 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| N2 | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| N3 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Metastasis status | |||
| M0 | 18 | 9 | 27 |
| M1 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Clinical stage | |||
| I | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| II | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| III | 9 | 4 | 13 |
| IVA | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| IVB | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| IVC | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Histology (WHO Type) | |||
| Keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-keratinizing carcinoma Differentiated type | 15 | 7 | 22 |
| Non-keratinizing carcinoma Undifferentiated type | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| Treatment | |||
| Alternating CRT | 18 | 9 | 27 |
| Radiotherapy alone | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Surgery | 1 | 0 | 1 |
CR, complete remission; CRT, chemoradiotherapy; and WHO, World Health Organization. TNM stage classification was based on the staging system of the Union Internationale Contre Le Cancer [23].