What are the treatment methods for functional exercises after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma?

For patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, the focus is on active prevention and strengthening of functional exercises for chronic and long-term radiation reactions such as persistent dry mouth caused by salivary gland damage, difficulty in opening the mouth caused by fibrosis of the masticatory muscles and temporomandibular joints, and limited neck movement caused by fibrosis of the cervical joint muscles. What are the functional exercises after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma? What is the treatment method?

The exercise is as follows:

1. Rinse your mouth with tea: Rinse your mouth with warm tea after each meal, alternately puffing your cheeks and sucking, and rinse your mouth thoroughly for 1-3 times to remove food debris between teeth, thereby achieving the effect of cleaning teeth and maintaining oral hygiene.

2. Knock teeth: Tap or bite the upper and lower teeth 2-3 times a day, about 100 times each time, and lick the periodontium with the tip of the tongue 3-5 times to end

Since pathological examinations are mostly poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, radiotherapy is recognized as the first choice of treatment. Conventional radiotherapy has many complications, and three-dimensional conformal or enhanced radiotherapy is recommended. The total irradiation dose to the nasopharynx is 66~70Gy/6.5~7 weeks, the radical dose for positive cervical lymph nodes is 56~60Gy, and the preventive radiation dose for negative cervical lymph nodes is 46~50Gy. During radiotherapy, chemotherapy, traditional Chinese medicine, and immunotherapy can be combined to improve the efficacy. Comprehensive treatment methods such as chemotherapy and surgery can be used for some advanced patients and recurrent cases after radiotherapy, as well as a small number of adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas that are insensitive to radiation.

Due to different disease stages, the prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma varies greatly: the 5-year survival rate of stage I cases with comprehensive treatment can reach 95%, while that of stage IV patients is only 35%. Early detection and early treatment are the key to improving the efficacy.