Introduction: late complications in the management of nasopharyngeal cancer

Radiation therapy (RT) is the mainstay of treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). Most of NPC patients are received high doses of radiotherapy to cover nearly all levels of cervical lymph nodes. As the treatment outcome improved, patients who had long-term survival have the potential for the late radiation induced toxicities to many important organs at risk in the radiation fields e.g., salivary glands, optic nerves, swallowing muscles.

In this issue of Annals of Nasopharynx Cancer, we present 5 articles that are intended to discuss the long term complications of major normal organs at risks following radiotherapy for NPC. This issue also provides the late complications of chemotherapeutic agents using concurrently with radiotherapy for NPC. Additionally, we provide an article about diet and nutrition for irradiated NPC patients who suffered from late radiation induced toxicities.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Nasopharynx Cancer for the series “Late Complications in the Management of Nasopharyngeal Cancer”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/anpc-2019-lcmnc-06). The series “Late Complications in the Management of Nasopharyngeal Cancer” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. IC served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Annals of Nasopharynx Cancer from August 2019 to August 2021. The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Imjai Chitapanarux