Pre-treatment serum inflammatory cytokines as survival predictors of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma receiving chemoradiotherapy.

The present study aimed to examine the predictability of pre-treatment serum levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α for determining the outcome of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) assigned for chemoradiotherapy. A total of 35 patients with NPC were subjected to clinical examination and evaluation of performance status using Karnofsky scoring. Nasopharyngoscopy was performed for evaluation and to obtain a biopsy.