The Children and Adolescents Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Survivor Study

The Children and Adolescents Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Survivor Study

The Children and Adolescents Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Survivor Study will investigate the long-term effects of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its associated therapies. A prospective and retrospective cohort study will be conducted through a multi-institutional collaboration. This project will study children and adolescents exposed to specific therapeutic modalities, including radiation, chemotherapy, and/or surgery, who are at increased risk of late-occurring adverse health outcomes. A group of sibling controls will be identified and data collected for comparison purposes.

The study will focus on the following objectives:

• Characterize survivors' health with respect to disease- and treatment-related factors.
• Investigate the consequences of various intensities of exposure to chemotherapy and/or radiation on health outcomes (e.g., cardiovascular, reproductive, second cancers, etc…).
• Compare the mortality experience of survivors with the general population.
• Characterize the health-related behaviors, patterns of medical care, and medical follow-up needs of survivors.
• Describe patterns of familial aggregation of cancer, including known (and variations of) cancer family syndromes.
• Collect and store biologic samples (saliva, blood, second tumor tissue) to correlate with health outcomes and use for future research.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients or their siblings must be informed of the investigational nature of this study and give written informed consent.

  • Patients with histologically confirmed non-keratinizing nasopharyngeal carcinoma (including differentiated type and undifferentiated type, WHO II or III) before age 21 years at one of participating centers.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Already involved in other blind clinical trial.
• The information of tumour response evaluation and survival data cannot be obtained.