Preliminary results of a randomized study (NPC-9902 Trial) on therapeutic gain by concurrent chemotherapy and/or accelerated fractionation for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Purpose: To compare the benefit achieved by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and/or accelerated fractionation (AF) vs. radiotherapy (RT) alone with conventional fractionation (CF) for patients with T3-4N0-1M0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods And Materials: All patients were irradiated with the same RT technique to > or =66 Gy at 2 Gy per fraction, conventional five fractions/week in the CF and CF+C (chemotherapy) arms, and accelerated six fractions/week in the AF and AF+C arms.

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma: comparison between papillary and follicular carcinoma in a single institute.

Purpose: To compare and contrast the clinical presentation and treatment outcome of patients with papillary and follicular thyroid carcinoma and to study the pattern of practice of treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma in Hong Kong.

Method: The clinical presentation and treatment outcomes were reviewed for 1057 patients with differentiated thyroid cancers who were treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong, from 1960 to 1997. Eight hundred forty-two patients had papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC), and 215 had follicular thyroid carcinomas (FTC).

Papillary thyroid carcinoma: prognostic factors and the role of radioiodine and external radiotherapy.

Purpose: To evaluate the role of radioiodine and external radiotherapy treatment in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Methods And Materials: This is a retrospective study of 842 patients with the diagnosis of PTC registered from 1960 to 1997 at the Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong. The mean follow-up was 9.