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Summary Purpose This study was designed to estimate the life expectancy (LE) and quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) in non-metastatic nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) patients. Methods and materials Patients were eligible for the present study if they were diagnosed with NPC and had been treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2010. The quality of life (QOL) data were collected using the questionnaires of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35. The LE of NPC patients was obtained using linear extrapolation of a logit-transformed curve and was adjusted by the corresponding QOL function to calculate the QALE. Results During the study period, 110 patients met the inclusion criteria, and 53 of these completed questionnaires. The median follow-up was 65.2 months (range 4.0–117.3 months). The average LE and QALE were estimated to be 20.6 years and 11.6 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for NPC patients and 24.4 years and 24.4 QALYs for the reference population, respectively. Compared to the reference population, the loss of LE and QALE for NPC patients were 3.8 years and 12.8 QALYs, respectively. Conclusions This study offers a quick overview of the LE and the QALE of NPC patients treated with IMRT. Moreover, the results appear more understandable than the 5 year survival outcomes when communicating with patients or the general population regarding cancer risk. In the future, evaluating the robustness of comparative assessments for the outcome of NPC patients undergoing different treatment protocols will be possible.

Osteopontin is a tumor-associated protein that promotes tumor development and metastasis. The preoperative blood samples of 94 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients and 28 healthy individuals were analyzed for plasma osteopontin levels, and another 256 paraffin-embedded OSCC specimens were analyzed by osteopontin immunostaining. The patients with advanced tumor (T) stage (T3/T4 vs. T1/T2) and positive nodal (N) status had significantly higher plasma levels of osteopontin (both p0.001). Positive osteopontin immunostaining also correlated significantly with advanced T stage (p0.001), positive N status (p0.001), advanced TNM stage (p0.001) and male gender (p=0.016). Unfavorable cumulative 5-year overall survival rates correlated significantly with positive osteopontin immunostaining (p0.001), advanced T stage (p0.001), positive N status (p0.001) and advanced TNM stage (p0.001). However, Cox regression analysis revealed that T stage and N status were independent prognostic factors for survival (both p0.001) and osteopontin immunostaining was marginally significant for survival (p=0.056). The present study demonstrated that high expression level of osteopontin in either the plasma or the tumor of the patients with OSCC was associated with tumor progression, suggesting that osteopontin expression is an important prognostic factor for OSCC.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is frequently detected in squamous cell carcinoma of tonsil (TSCC) among the Western population. However, the only reported study on Chinese patients in the English literature demonstrated absence of HPV in TSCC. To evaluate the prevalence and clinical significance of HPV-related TSCC in Taiwan, we performed PCR with MY09/MY11 consensus primers and in situ hybridization to study 111 TSCC samples. The results showed that only 12.6% TSCC were HPV-positive. The favorable 5-year survival rate correlated significantly with HPV positivity (p=0.007), female (p=0.046), and early tumor (T) stage (p