Hearing loss may accompany nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients throughout their entire life span

Hearing loss has a very subtle relationship with nasopharyngeal cancer. Some patients have hearing loss as the first symptom and only find out that it is caused by nasopharyngeal cancer when they go to the hospital for examination. Some patients have hearing loss after the onset of nasopharyngeal cancer. Some patients have hearing loss after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal cancer or even several years after radiotherapy. So what is the reason for this?

Hearing loss in the early stages of nasopharyngeal carcinoma may be due to invasion or damage to the auditory nerve during its growth. However, early hearing loss can easily be misdiagnosed as otitis media or other diseases, thus delaying treatment. Therefore, when unexplained hearing loss occurs, accompanied by nasal congestion, headache, tinnitus, and a feeling of stuffy ears, one should be alert to the occurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Some nasopharyngeal cancer patients experience hearing loss only after the lesion is discovered. This may be because the cancer did not invade the auditory nerve before, but later as the cancer further developed, it caused damage to the auditory nerve, resulting in hearing loss.

Another group of nasopharyngeal cancer patients did not experience hearing loss at first, but developed hearing loss after receiving radiotherapy. This is a side effect of radiotherapy. In addition to killing or injuring cancerous tumors, the strong radiation during radiotherapy can also damage normal cells. Long-term damage can cause fluid accumulation in the ear, leading to hearing loss.