Will nasopharyngeal cancer cause headaches? What are the early symptoms?

In life, many people with nasopharyngeal cancer worry whether the disease will cause headaches. So, can nasopharyngeal cancer cause headaches? What are the early symptoms?

Can nasopharyngeal cancer cause headaches?

If the nasopharyngeal carcinoma tumor metastasis causes headaches, local radiotherapy can be used to relieve the pain by killing local cancer cells. It is recommended to go to the hospital for a follow-up examination and then receive targeted treatment.

Headache is also a common symptom of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, accounting for 68% and 66% of patients with headache. It can be the first symptom or the second symptom. In the early stage, the location of headache is not fixed and intermittent. In the late stage, it is continuous migraine with fixed location.

Nasopharyngeal cancer is a common tumor in the south. There is only one bone between the nasopharynx and the base of the brain, which is only a few millimeters thick. The main characteristic of cancer is to destroy and invade surrounding tissues. Nasopharyngeal cancer likes to grow on the mucous membrane at the base of the brain and easily invades the skull. The tumor destroys bones and mucous membranes, and when it involves the meninges, it can cause severe headaches.

68% of NPC patients have headache symptoms. For 6%, the location of headache is relatively fixed, mostly in the temporal, top or occipital area of ​​the affected side. The pain is often continuous and worsens at night. The nature of the headache is mostly distending pain, stabbing pain or dull pain. In the late stage, unbearable severe pain occurs.

What are the early symptoms?

Headache: About 70% of patients have headache symptoms when they are first diagnosed with NPC. The main symptoms are migraine, pain in the back of the skull or neck. The headache of NPC is mainly related to the invasion of the skull base bones, nerves and blood vessels by cancerous tissue.

Swollen lymph nodes in the neck: Many NPC patients inadvertently come into contact with a "lump" in the neck and seek medical attention. This "lump" is actually a swollen lymph node. Swollen lymph nodes in the neck are often misdiagnosed as inflammation in NPC patients. For those who do not shrink after anti-inflammatory treatment or even continue to grow rapidly, especially those with hard texture, poor mobility, and multiple painless neck lumps fused together, they need to seek medical attention in time.

As can be seen from the above, the most typical symptom of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is headache. Patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma may also have symptoms such as swollen lymph nodes in the neck.