Pretreatment neck node biopsy, distant metastases, and survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Pretreatment neck node biopsy had been performed on 50 of 422 patients who had cervical node metastases from nasopharyngeal carcinoma when initially seen. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model shows that pretreatment node biopsy is not a significant determinant of distant metastases, survival, or recurrence in the neck. Results of similar studies are reviewed and the role of pretreatment node biopsy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma discussed.