Ten years of experience in clinicopathologic characteristics, treatment and outcome of patients with nasopharyngeal pathologies in Yazd, Iran

INTRODUCTION Although there are some studies regarding the clinical characteristics and outcome of nasopharyngeal tumors, one such study from Iran has not been reported to date. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical features, treatment, and consequences of nasopharyngeal lesions. METHODS In this cross sectional study, we conducted a retrospective review of patients who were diagnosed with nasopharyngeal pathologies and treated at Shahid Sadoughi Hospital and Shahid Ramazanzadeh Radiotherapy Center in Yazd, Iran, over a period of 10 years (from 2005 to 2014). The variables in the study were the patient's hospital registration number, date, name, age, gender, address, topography, clinical symptoms, morphology, stage, types of treatment, and survival for each subject. Survival data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier estimates, and multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox regression method. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM-SPSS, version 22. RESULTS In the study, there were 123 patients, 85 males and 38 females, who had nasopharyngeal lesions. The mean age at diagnosis was 41.51 ± 20.33 years. There were 83 patients with malignant neoplasms and 40 patients with non-malignant lesions. The most common malignant tumor was nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and the most common benign lesion was angiofibroma. Survival analysis was performed for the 83 patients who had malignant neoplasms, and survival was found to be 94.5 ± 4.32 months. There were significant differences in survival based on the stage of the disease, histological type, and the type of treatment (p = 0.001, 0.02, and 0.003, respectively). CONCLUSION In our institutional study, malignant tumors were more common than benign lesions. Patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma presented relatively late and at an advanced stage. Regular follow-up is necessary for early detection, recurrence, or metastases of malignant tumors.