What are the symptoms of recurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma? What are the symptoms in the late stage?

Are there any symptoms of recurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma? What are the symptoms of advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma?

Recurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma usually causes headache, facial numbness, difficulty opening the mouth, and double vision: these symptoms may occur one, two, or all, or appear one after another, ranging from mild to severe, and can develop continuously. Headaches are mostly migraines, which progressively worsen. Facial numbness is usually on the same side as the headache, and the skin feels numb, tingling, or like insects crawling. The range of numbness may gradually expand or worsen, which can lead to difficulty opening the mouth, bending, and chewing weakness.

Diplopia refers to the appearance of double vision when looking at things. At first, they mostly see double vision on the left and right sides. In the future, they can develop to all directions. Examinations show that the eyeballs do not rotate well, and even develop to the point where the eyeballs are fixed and cannot rotate. Some cases have proptosis and blindness. Diplopia is caused by lesions invading the skull base or throat space, leading to paralysis of the cranial nerves that dominate the eyeballs.

Symptoms of advanced nasopharyngeal cancer mainly include:

1. Swollen cervical lymph nodes: The tumor metastasizes to the cervical lymph nodes, with an incidence rate as high as 79.37%. It may metastasize to one side, or to both sides, or to the eyes.

2. Symptoms of cranial nerve damage: As nasopharyngeal carcinoma infiltrates into the surrounding areas, any compression of cranial nerves will cause corresponding symptoms and signs.

3. Distant metastasis: NPC can metastasize to various parts of the body, but it is common in bones, lungs, and liver. Multiple organs can metastasize at the same time. The corresponding manifestations appear due to the different metastatic sites.

4. Cachexia: terminal manifestations, death, sudden bleeding.