Clinical treatment considerations in the intensity-modulated radiotherapy era for patients with N0-category nasopharyngeal carcinoma and enlarged neck lymph nodes

Table 3 Multivariate analysis of the prognosis of 251 patients with N0-category NPC and ENLNs using an adjusted Cox proportional hazards model

Variable	RRFS			DFS			OS			DMFS
Variable	HR	95% CI	P value	HR	95% CI	P value	HR	95% CI	P value	HR	95% CI	P value
Gender (male vs. female)	<0.001	–	0.666	1.548	0.530–4.525	0.424	1.089	0.223–5.307	0.916	1.562	0.340–7.182	0.567
Age (≥50 vs. <50 years)	<0.001	–	0.583	2.318	0.998–5.386	0.051	7.955	1.916–33.026	0.004	2.821	0.892–8.919	0.077
Smoking (yes vs. no)	0.009	–	0.841	1.680	0.686–4.116	0.257	2.608	0.713–9.536	0.147	2.393	0.759–7.544	0.136
Drinking (yes vs. no)	0.001	–	0.870	0.350	0.047–2.632	0.308	<0.001	–	0.980	<0.001	–	0.985
Serum LDH level (<245 vs. ≥245 U/L)	<0.001	–	0.857	4.689	1.370–16.050	0.014	15.445	3.224–73.992	0.001	5.794	1.258–26.693	0.024
Family history of cancer (yes vs. no)	132.973	–	0.585	0.764	0.302–1.933	0.570	0.199	0.034–1.172	0.074	0.602	0.160–2.270	0.454
BED (<72 vs. ≥72 Gy)	107,046.092	–	0.485	2.438	0.882–7.226	0.108	3.097	0.697–13.754	0.137	2.741	0.60–12.526	0.193
Chemotherapy (yes vs. no)	<0.001	–	0.473	1.123	0.409–3.084	0.821	1.132	0.235–5.465	0.877	0.924	0.228–3.752	0.912
T category (T1–2 vs. T3–4)	<0.001	–	0.539	1.204	0.510–2.842	0.672	2.984	0.649–13.720	0.160	1.497	0.468–4.794	0.497
ENLN diameter (<5.5 vs. ≥5.5 mm)	<0.001	–	0.498	1.914	0.704–5.200	0.203	1.288	0.308–5.392	0.729	2.579	0.556–11.969	0.226

RRFS regional relapse-free survival, DFS disease-free survival, OS overall survival, DMFS distant metastases-free survival, HR hazard ratio, CI confidence interval, LDH lactate dehydrogenase, BED biological equivalent dose
– No confidence interval

ISSN: 2523-3548