[Clinical analysis of 1,142 hospitalized cantonese patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma].

BACKGROUND OBJECTIVE: Few large-scale epidemiologic investigations of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) at high incidence region in Guangdong province were reported in recent 20 years. This study was to summarize clinical data of a population of hospitalized Cantonese NPC patients, analyze the epidemiologic characteristics of NPC in the high incidence region, and provide references for the prevention and treatment of NPC. METHODS: Clinical data of 1 142 Cantonese NPC patients, hospitalized in Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University between Jan. 1998 and Aug. 2000, were collected according to well-designed forms and statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The morbidity of NPC in Cantonese showed obvious family clustering: 21.9% of the patients had family history of cancer, and 12.3% had family history of NPC. Moreover, the family clustering feature was more obvious in the population from the region with higher incidence of NPC. The positive rate of VCA/IgA antibody was 90.0%, and that of EA/IgA antibody was 74.5% ; the titers were positively related to tumor burden. Early diagnostic rate of NPC was about 30%. CONCLUSIONS: NPC patients in Cantonese population have obvious family and territorial clustering. High positive rates of VCA/IgA and EA/IgA antibodies are helpful for early diagnosis of NPC.