Objective: The purpose of the study was to explore the overall survival (OS) and loco-regional control (LRC) at less than 5 years as alternative end points to that of 5-year for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).Methods: Totally 2450 NPC patients were enrolled, including 1842 patients treated by 2D radiotherapy (2D RT), 451 by 3 dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D CRT), and 157 by intension modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).We calculated survival rates of each year using life table, and compared them with that of 5-year by McNemar method from 4-year to 1-year sequentially.Results: The survival of the last indifferent comparison was the alternative end point.For 2D RT,stage Ⅰ patients had the similar survival of 1-year and 5-year (98.9% vs.94.4%, P=0.125, for both OS and LRC), and stage N3 patients had the similar 4-year OS (55.2% vs.53.5%, P=1.000) and similar 2-year LRC (78.3% vs.71.2%, P=0.125) with that of 5-year.For IMRT, the 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-year OS and LRC rates of stage Ⅰ/Ⅱ were 100%, 98%, 96%, 94%, 94%, and 100%, 98%, 96%, 96%, 96%, respectively.No significant differences were found for all comparisons.Of IMRT stage Ⅲ /Ⅳ, the 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-year OS and LRC rates were 99.1%, 96.3%, 92.5%, 88.8%, 85.0%, and 98.1%, 97.2%, 95.3%, 90.7%, 89.7%,respectively.Only 4-year OS and LRC were indifferent from that of 5-year (P=0.125 for OS, P=1.00 for LRC).Conclusions:In conclusion, there exist alternative 1-year OS and LRC for NPC with stage Ⅰ with 2D RT treatment and for stage Ⅰ/Ⅱ with IMRT, 4-year OS and 2-year LRC for stage N3 with 2D RT, and 4-year OS and LRC for stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ with IMRT to 5-year OS and LRC.