Table 1.

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy given to the patients with NPC.

Treatment	Details
Radiotherapy	– Gross tumor volume of the nasopharynx: dose of 70–74 Gy – Gross tumor volume of cervical lymph nodes: dose of 68–70 Gy – Clinical target volume 1*: dose of 60–64 Gy – Clinical target volume 2**: dose of 50–54 Gy – Treatments were given once a day, 5 times/week, for 6 weeks, for a total of 30 days.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy	Cisplatin–based concurrent chemotherapy, mainly with 80–100 mg/m2 on days 1–2 every 3 weeks, for 2–3 cycles
Concurrent chemotherapy	Two cycles of DF (cisplatin [25 mg/m2 on days 1–3] and 5–fluorouracil [750 mg/m2 on days 1–5])

^*Defined as the gross tumor volume of the nasopharynx +5–10 mm margin, and the range depended on the adjacent texture characteristic, including pharyngonasal cavity mucosa and submucosal 5 mm;

^**defined as the area that the NPC might extend to, including skull base, the posterior ethmoid sinus, sphenoid sinus bottom, the posterior third of the nasal cavity, pterygoid process, pterygopalatine fossa, parapharyngeal space, retropharyngeal space, and the size of the negative regional lymph nodes.