Nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC)is one of the most common malignant tumors of the head and neck.The therapies for nasopharyngeal carcinoma include the following aspects:conventional radiotherapy,chemotherapy,surgery and molecular target therapy,etc.The combined chemo-radiotherapy and molecular target therapy has gradually become the hotspot therapy for NPC.

Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1),an enzyme of the pyrimidine remedial pathway,can catalyze phosphorylation of thymidine to thymidine monophosphate.It is closely related to cell cycle regulation and cell proliferation.A number of experiments show that TK1 can be used for physical examination,tumor screening,routine testing,effect monitoring and prognosis evaluation,which is considered to be a sensitive and useful marker for human tumor growth.

A total of 59 untreated asthmatics and 47 healthy control subjects were recruited from Qianfoshan Hospital of Shandong Province from May 2011 to April 2012.Compared with healthy control subjects,the levels of IL-25 in induced sputum and eosinophils,IgE,interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin25 (IL-25) in serum samples of asthmatics were significantly higher while the level of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) were much lower.However,after inhaled glucocorticoid treatment,the levels of eosinophils,IL-4 and IL-25 decreased and IFN-γ significantly increased,while the level of IgE showed no significant changes.It was also found the expression of IL-25 was markedly positively correlated with the levels of eosinophils and IL-4 in serum and markedly negatively correlated with the levels of IFN-γ and had no relatio.

Objective:To explore the significance of the clinical target volume (CTV) dose optimization in the upper and middle neck in protecting the laryngopharynx, anterior and posterior rings during intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and multimodal imaging system for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Methods:Clinical data of 298 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients admitted to Jiangsu Cancer Hospital from 2016 to 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the following five strategies of CTV dose optimization in the upper and middle neck: group A, complete optimization of bilateral cervical lymph nodes (CLNs), that is, the CTV doses of bilateral CLNs were 50.4 Gy; group B, complete optimization of unilateral CLNs, that is, the CTV dose of unilateral CLNs was 50.4 Gy and the contralateral CLNs was 60 Gy; group C, incomplete optimization of bilateral CLNs, that is, the CTV doses of bilateral CLNs were 50.4 Gy, while the suspicious positive CLNs were selectively boosted to 60 Gy; group D, incomplete optimization of unilateral CLNs, that is, the CTV dose of unilateral CLNs was 50.4 Gy and the suspicious positive CLNs were selectively boosted to 60 Gy, and the CTV dose of contralateral side was 60 Gy; group E: no optimization, that is, the CTV doses of bilateral CLNs were 60 Gy.Results:Among 298 patients, 215 patients received dose optimization and 83 cases did not receive dose optimization. In the dose optimization schemes, 114 cases were assigned in group A, 36 cases in group B, 60 cases in group C and 5 cases in group D. The median (range) follow-up time was 28.5(6.0-46.3) months. The overall survival rate was 95.6%, the progression-free survival rate was 84.2% and the locoregional control rate of CLNs was 98.0%. Local relapse of CLNs occurred in six patients, including 1 case of retropharyngeal lymph node, 4 cases of Ⅱ area and 1 case of Ⅳ area. The P values of average dose of laryngopharynx in group A, group B, group C and group D compared with that in group E were<0.001, 0.016, 0.001 and 0.572, respectively. The P values of the average dose of the anterior ring in group A, group B, group C and group D compared with that in group E were<0.001, 0.011, <0.001 and 0.805, respectively. The P values of the average dose of the posterior ring in group A, group B, group C and group D compared with that in group E were<0.001, 0.004, <0.001 and 0.252, respectively.Conclusions:Combined with the metastatic rules of CLNs and multimodal imaging system, it is safe to optimize the CTV dose of the upper and middle neck during IMRT in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients, which can significantly reduce the doses of laryngopharynx, anterior and posterior rings, thereby providing evidence for reducing the CTV dose in the upper and middle neck.