Nasopharyngeal cancer: towards the ever elusive goal of standardization

Nasopharyngeal cancer is unique, not only because it is among the handful of cancer sites with marked patterns of endemicity, but also because the limited role of surgery in the management of this solid tumor. This is both a boon and a curse: on the one hand Nasopharyngeal Cancer can be considered a solid proof of the efficacy of radiotherapy as a curative treatment modality for malignant diseases, but on the other hand it also means that only limited amount of surgical/pathological data is available to guide the radiation oncologist in specifying target volumes as opposed to other sites.