What does facial numbness mean? Facial numbness may be an early symptom of nasopharyngeal cancer?

What does facial numbness mean? Facial numbness may be an early symptom of nasopharyngeal cancer? The nasopharynx is located just behind the nose, above the throat and below the brain. Nasopharyngeal cancer is common in the southeastern coastal areas of China. It is sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The cure rate of early patients can reach more than 90%. However, due to the variable or unclear symptoms, it is often ignored by patients or doctors, which affects the best treatment time.

Early symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma include facial numbness.
Numbness of facial skin. Clinical examination mainly shows decreased tactile sensation or disappearance of pain. Tumor invasion into the cavernous sinus often causes damage to 1 or 2 branches of the trigeminal nerve. Tumor invasion into the oval foramen, the anterior area of ​​the styloid process, and the third branch of the trigeminal nerve often causes numbness or paresthesia of the skin in front of the auricle, temporal region, cheek, lower lip, and eyelid. 10%-27.9% of patients experience numbness of the facial skin.
Because nasopharyngeal cancer has no specific symptoms, early diagnosis is not easy. Our only way is to be vigilant and seek help from a reliable otolaryngologist when the following symptoms occur.
Unexplained lumps in the neck: This is usually the most common and earliest symptom. Because nasopharyngeal carcinoma has lymph node metastasis very early, it causes swollen lymph nodes, which are generally painless and will grow slowly.
Blood in the nasal discharge, blood in the sputum, or recurrent nosebleeds: This is because necrosis occurs on the surface of the tumor, causing blood vessels to rupture and cause bleeding (usually dark red or with blood clots). If it flows out of the nostrils and becomes a nosebleed or mixes with the nasal discharge, when it flows back to the throat, blood in the sputum is likely to appear, especially in the morning when you gargle, you will find sputum with blood.
Ear plugging, tinnitus, feeling of water flowing in the ear, or hearing loss in one ear: If the tumor invades the muscles that control the opening and closing of the Eustachian tube, it can easily cause an imbalance in the pressure inside and outside the middle ear cavity and symptoms caused by water accumulation in the middle ear.
Unilateral headache: The tumor invades the base of the skull and compresses the meninges or tissues in the cranial cavity, causing unilateral headache.
Eye symptoms: for example, double vision (seeing two shadows on one object), eye movement disorders, or facial nerve palsy, which is a symptom caused by cranial nerve palsy due to tumor invasion into the brain.
Nose symptoms: such as nasal congestion and purulent nasal discharge. The tumor invades the nasal cavity and blocks the opening of the sinus, causing sinusitis and purulent nasal discharge or nasal congestion.