What are the symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma? Which symptoms are easily ignored?

What are the symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer? Which symptoms are easily ignored?

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a common malignant tumor that occurs in the nasopharyngeal mucosa. Most patients are middle-aged, but some are young people.

Malignant tumors have serious impacts on the body due to their immature differentiation, rapid growth, infiltration and destruction of organ structure and function, and metastasis. Patients in the late stage often develop malignant lesions, leading to death.

Symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer that are easily ignored:

1. Headache: When nasopharyngeal carcinoma is first diagnosed, about 70% of patients have headache symptoms. The early headache site is not fixed and intermittent. In early patients, it may be caused by neurovascular reflex or stimulation of the first branch of the trigeminal nerve.

2. Diplopia: Due to the invasion of the abducens nerve by the tumor, double vision is often seen when looking outward. Invasion of the trochlear nerve often causes inward strabismus and diplopia, which accounts for 6.2% to 19%. It is often damaged at the same time as the trigeminal nerve. In addition, numbness of the facial skin may occur, and clinical examination shows decreased or absent pain and touch sensation.

3. Neck mass: This mass is actually an enlarged lymph node. The enlarged lymph nodes in the neck of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma are often misdiagnosed as inflammation. For neck masses that do not shrink after anti-inflammatory treatment or even continue to grow rapidly, especially those that are hard, have poor mobility, and are fused together into a mass, you need to seek medical attention in time.

4. Tongue atrophy and tongue deviation, ptosis and fixed eyeballs are mainly related to oculomotor nerve damage. Visual impairment or disappearance is related to optic nerve damage or orbital cone invasion.

Some symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer are easily overlooked, so everyone should pay attention to changes in their bodies in daily life.