Nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated at the Finsen Institute, Copenhagen 1965-1985: survival and some prognostic factors.

Clinical data from 218 patients consecutively treated for nasopharyngeal carcinoma at the Finsen Institute in Copenhagen during the period 1965 through 1985 have been analyzed for factors of prognostic importance. Of the 218 patients, 47 were Greenland Inuit eskimos and 169 were white Danish. The 5-year crude survival for the entire group of patients was 30%. The two groups of patients differed with respect to the importance of different prognostic factors. Keratinizing tumors were only present in the Danish population. These patients had a highly significant worse outcome than the rest of the Danish (P less than 0.00001). Age, stage, and T classification were important prognostic factors in the Danish population, but not in the Inuit population.