Purpose: To evaluate the long-term clinical outcome and toxicity of conventional and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy for malignancies of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses.
Methods and materials: Between January 1976 and February 2003, 127 patients with histologically proven cancer of the paranasal sinuses (n = 119) or nasal cavity (n = 8) were treated with preoperative (n = 61), postoperative (n = 51), or primary (n = 15) radiotherapy, using conventional (n = 74) or three-dimensional conformal (n = 53) techniques. No elective neck irradiation of the cervical lymph nodes was performed in N0 patients.
Results: Median follow-up was 5.6 years (range, 3-307 months) for all patients, and 7.3 years (range, 47-307 months) for patients still alive at the close-out date. The actuarial 5-year local control, overall survival, and disease-free survival rates were 53%, 54%, and 37%, respectively. Only 6 (5%) of all 127 patients and 4 (3%) of 122 originally N0 patients developed a regional failure in the neck. Distant metastasis occurred in 20% of patients. Both primary tumor extent and lymph node involvement were the most important prognostic factors, together with squamous cell carcinoma histology.
Conclusion: Local failure remains the dominant cause of poor outcome for patients with sinonasal cancer, despite aggressive local treatment with combined surgery and radiotherapy in operable patients. Distant metastasis and certainly regional relapse were much less common sites of failure. Overall survival remains poor, suggesting the need for more efficacious local and possibly systemic therapy.