Table 4 Treatment toxicity and the sites of first failure for the two patient groups (EBRT + NBT and 3D-CRT)
Characteristics | EBRT + NBT (n = 545) | 3D-CRT (n = 339) | P value |
|---|---|---|---|
Acute toxicity (Events of grade ≥2) | Number of patients (%) | ||
Esophagitis | 197 (36.1 %) | 122 36.0 %) | 0.962 |
Pulmonary complications | 30 (5.5 %) | 10 (2.9 %) | 0.076 |
Leukopenia | 425 (78.0 %) | 209 (61.7 %) | <0.001 |
Neutropenia | 282 (51.7 %) | 165 (48.7 %) | 0.375 |
Thrombocytopenia | 54 (9.9 %) | 8 (2.4 %) | <0.001 |
Late toxicity | |||
Esophageal fistulas | 33 (6.1 %) | 47 (13.9 %) | <0.001 |
Massive bleeding | 27 (5.0 %) | 20 (5.9 %) | 0.831 |
The sites of first failure in the whole group | |||
Local-regional failure | 195 (35.7 %) | 139 (41.0 %) | 0.001 |
In field | 170 (31.2 %) | 124 (36.6 %) | 0.001 |
Out field | 25 (4.6 %) | 15 (4.4 %) | 0.116 |
Distant metastasis | 86 (15.8 %) | 41 (12.1 %) | 0.128 |
Lung | 23 (4.2 %) | 14 (4.1 %) | NS |
liver | 14 (2.6 %) | 8 (2.4 %) | NS |
Bone | 14 (2.6 %) | 3 (0.9 %) | NS |
Brain | 5 (1.0 %) | 3 (0.9 %) | NS |
≥2 metastasis sites | 30 (5.5 %) | 13 (3.8 %) | NS |
Not otherwise specified (disease of heart head blood-vessel, pneumonia, second tumor) | 36 (6.6 %) | 35 (6.4 %) | NS |