Causes and symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer

Causes and symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer.

The cause of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is still unclear. Genetic factors and traditional lifestyle factors may play an important role in the occurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

1. Genetic factors: According to cell chromosomes and human tissue compatibility antigen HLA, nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a disease associated with multi-gene genetic factors.

2. Environmental factors: Environmental factors are also one of the causes of nasopharyngeal cancer. Eating too much salted fish, bacon and pickled foods containing nitrosamines can induce nasopharyngeal cancer. The nickel content in the hair of nasopharyngeal cancer patients is also high. Animal experiments have shown that nickel can promote nitrosamines to induce nasopharyngeal cancer.

3. EB virus: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma has high titers of EB virus antibodies in the body, especially in severe cases. As the disease recovers, the antibody titer decreases, indicating that EB virus is closely related to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Nasopharyngeal cancer has the following signs and symptoms:

1. Respiration nosebleed: In the early stage, there may be blood in the sputum after suctioning the nose, or blood when blowing the nose, or sometimes not. In the late stage, there may be obvious nosebleed.

2. Ear symptoms: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma occurs in the side wall of the nasopharynx or the upper lip of the Eustachian tube opening. The tumor compresses the Eustachian tube and may cause unilateral tinnitus or hearing loss. Secretory otitis media, unilateral tinnitus or hearing loss, ear occlusion, etc. may also occur, which may be early symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

3. Headache: Headache is a common symptom, accounting for 68.6%. It can be the first symptom or a symptom. In the early stage, the headache is intermittent and the location is not fixed. In the late stage, it is a continuous migraine with a fixed location. The early headache may be caused by neurovascular reflex or stimulation of the first terminal nerve of the trigeminal nerve. The headache of patients in the late stage is usually caused by tumor destruction of the skull base or intracranial spread.

4. Other symptoms: such as diplopia, facial numbness, nasal congestion, cervical lymph node metastasis, tongue muscle atrophy and tongue deviation, ptosis, fixed eyeballs, loss or disappearance of vision, etc.

5. The main signs of nasopharyngeal carcinoma are nasopharyngeal masses and cervical lymph node enlargement caused by cervical lymph node metastasis. If there is systemic metastasis, corresponding signs will appear according to the specific parts of the metastasis.