Do patients with nasopharyngeal cancer often have a runny nose? Is it contagious?

There are a large number of nasopharyngeal cancer patients in China, but most people still have a superficial understanding of nasopharyngeal cancer. They don't know what the symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer are. Next, let's take a closer look at whether nasopharyngeal cancer patients often have a runny nose? Is it contagious?

Nasopharyngeal cancer symptoms include:

① Bleeding: mainly blood in the posterior nasal ligament or bloody nose. At the beginning, it is often a small amount of blood, which is easy to be ignored. When the amount of bleeding is large, the disease often enters the middle and late stages.

② Headache: In the early stage, there may be headache, mostly on one side and intermittent; in the late stage, there is continuous severe headache, which is easily mistaken for neuralgia.

③ Swollen cervical lymph nodes: Neck lumps appear on one or both sides, are not hard, and have poor mobility, and are often mistaken for lymph tuberculosis or lymphadenitis.

④ Other symptoms: In addition to one or all of the above symptoms, there may also be symptoms such as nasal congestion, ear closure, tinnitus, numbness, diplopia, and dangerous droop. Advanced cancer is prone to metastasis to intracranial invasion and distant sites such as bones, liver, and lungs.

Generally speaking, nasopharyngeal cancer patients do not have a runny nose often. The nasal symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer are bloody runny nose from time to time, or nasal congestion caused by blocking the posterior nostril when the tumor grows. Long-term unexplained runny nose can be regarded as chronic rhinitis or sinusitis.

Nasopharyngeal cancer itself is not a source of infection, nor is it contagious. However, studies have found that most nasopharyngeal cancer patients carry a virus called Epstein-Barr virus, commonly known as the kissing virus, which is an important killer of nasopharyngeal cancer.

EBV is spread through saliva exchange, and kissing is the most common way of transmission. Other ways of transmission include sneezing, coughing, sharing of tableware and blood transfusion. Infected people experience headaches, fever, liver enlargement, dehydration and diarrhea, which usually last for 2-4 weeks, but people with poor immunity may last longer.

Generally speaking, nasopharyngeal carcinoma is not contagious like other bacteria. The presence of Epstein-Barr virus aggravates the induction of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but it does not fundamentally mean that nasopharyngeal carcinoma is contagious.