What are the causes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a malignant tumor that originates from the nasopharyngeal mucosal epithelium. It is one of the top ten malignant tumors with the highest incidence in my country. Its incidence has obvious racial susceptibility, regional clustering and familial tendency.

According to statistics from the World Health Organization, 80% of nasopharyngeal cancer in the world occurs in southern provinces such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, and Fujian in my country. But so far, the exact cause has not been determined.

After years of research, the causes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma are mainly divided into three aspects:

One is chemical carcinogenesis. For example, Guangdong people often eat pickled foods, which contain ammonium nitrite, a carcinogen.

The second is environmental factors, which generally refers to air pollution. Guangdong people often burn incense and firewood.

The third is genetic factors. The genetic location of nasopharyngeal carcinoma can be detected in the laboratory, and there is a theory that it is a carcinogenic gene.

Medical research has proven that nasopharyngeal carcinoma has a family clustering tendency. According to experts, some experts have conducted dynamic observations on families with nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients, and conducted quarterly examinations of Epstein-Barr virus, nasopharynx and proteome for high-risk groups, and took intervention measures for family members. Preliminary studies have shown that the incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma has a trend of getting younger, from the original high-risk age of 40 to 60 years old to young people around 30 years old, both men and women. In addition, people with qi deficiency in nasopharyngeal carcinoma families are more likely to develop the disease, which manifests as fatigue, pale complexion, etc.