Abstract： Objective　To analyze the risk factors of cervical lymph node recurren ce in N0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). 　Methods　From January 1987 to December 1 996, 211 NPC patients without cervical lymph node involvement were treated with radiotherapy alone. Retrospective univariate and multivariate analyses were perf 　Results　 Forty-nine patients of these 211 patients deve lo ped recurrence in the cervical lymph nodes. The cervical lymph node recurrence r ate was lower in patients treated with conjoint facio-cervical fields to > 50 Gy in the upper neck as compared to those treated with seperate facial and neck fields to <50 Gy in the upper neck (P=0.000). The parapha ryng eal involvement a nd high T stage lesion are risk factors for neck node recurrence (P=0.001 and P=0.003 ). The neck recurrence in patients who received prophylactic whole neck irradiat ion was lower than those who received prophylactic upper neck irradiat ion(P>0.05)　Conclusions　We suggest that patients with neck negative NPC shou ld be treated with conjoint facio-cervical lateral fields and prophylactic w hole neck irradiation with more than 50 Gy to the upper neck.