Objective: A comparison of American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 1988 and 1997 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) classifications was made in terms of patient distribution and efficacy in predicting prognosis. Materials and Methods: Between Jan. 1981 and Dec. 1998, 60 cases of node negative nasopharyngeal carcinoma were retrospectively reviewed. The extent of disease each patients restaged according to the 4th and 5th AJCC system and Ho system, respectively. Results: The overall and disease free 5-year survival rates were 61.1% and 62.6%, respectively. Among T classifications of 4th AJCC, 5th AJCC and Ho staging system were not observed significantly different in disease-free survival rates, respectively. Conclusion: We observed a better patient distribution with AJCC 1997 comparing to AJCC 1988. The new classification also attained better statistical significances among stages in the overall survival and disease free survival rates was needed.