When nasopharyngeal cancer reaches advanced stage, the symptoms will gradually manifest, which is very harmful to human body and patients must be treated in time. So what are the late symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma? Here are the detailed answers from relevant experts.
What are the late symptoms and manifestations of nasopharyngeal cancer?
1. Enlarged cervical lymph nodes: nasopharyngeal cancer is caused by tumor metastasis to cervical lymph nodes in late stage, the incidence rate is as high as 79.37%, which can be unilateral or bilateral. The enlarged lymph nodes in the neck are painless, hard and movable in the early stage, and fixed by adhesion with skin or deep tissue in the late stage of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
2.Ocular symptoms: If the tumor invades the orbit or nerves related to the eye, patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma may suffer from visual impairment or even blindness, visual field loss, diplopia, protrusion and limited movement of the eye, nerve palsy keratitis, etc. Optic nerve atrophy and edema can be seen in fundus examination. These manifestations mostly belong to the late symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but some patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma still visit the clinic with this symptom.
3. Symptoms of cranial nerve damage: In the late stage of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, due to the infiltration of nasopharyngeal carcinoma into the surrounding area, any of the brain nerves compressed will show corresponding symptoms of late stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma. However, the trigeminal nerve, abducens nerve, glossopharyngeal nerve and hypoglossal nerve are more involved, while the facial nerve, olfactory nerve and auditory nerve are less involved.
Generally, common symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer recurrence include: blood in the nose and tinnitus are common symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer recurrence, headache is mostly seen in paranasal sinus and or intracranial recurrence, cavernous sinus recurrence is often accompanied by the manifestation of upper group cranial nerve injury. Pathological tissue biopsy must be done clinically to confirm the diagnosis for patients suspected to be at risk of recurrence, including pathological biopsy of paranasal sinusoscopy. Salvage surgery is to be considered in patients with recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma if there is no posterior parapharyngeal space or internal carotid artery invasion, no extensive skull base bone destruction and good general condition, and the family and patient give informed consent for local surgery. The earlier the extent of lesion re-staging, the better the treatment effect.
Symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma recurrence also include diplopia, subocular and supralabial cheek paralysis, difficulty in opening mouth, pain when touching scalp, etc. In severe cases, there is intracranial bleeding. If there is no finding in MRI examination, then it is not recurrence at present. Nasopharyngeal cancer is generally regarded as cured after 5 years. However, patients with nasopharyngeal cancer also have a higher chance of having a second cancer, many of which are from other parts of the body. The right mindset is not to be overly nervous, but not to take it lightly either.
What are the symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer metastasis: 1. Infiltration and expansion of primary cancer in nose, ear, eye and oral cavity The surface is ulcerated and infected. If the tumor is located in the crypt of the pharynx, there is often tinnitus, ear closure and hearing loss in the early stage, which can be easily misdiagnosed as cicatricial exudative otitis media or purulent otitis media.
2.Cranial nerve symptoms: upward infiltration and expansion of nasopharyngeal carcinoma can involve cranial nerve and cause corresponding symptoms. The above cranial nerves are involved and show their loss of function. And headache is often a signal of the expansion of cancer tumor into the skull. The headache is a persistent and fixed severe migraine, mostly in the trigeminal nerve sensory distribution area, and the nature may be distension, boring pain or zapping pain.
3. Neck signs mainly refer to masses caused by lymph node metastasis in the neck. Clinically, painless masses in the neck may be the first or even the only symptom. The lump first appears on one side, increases rapidly, and then involves the opposite side of the neck.
4.Distant metastasis symptoms The most common sites of nasopharyngeal cancer metastasis are bone, lung and liver. Bone metastasis is common in pelvis, spine and limb bones. Clinical observation shows that with the enlargement of cervical lymph nodes, the chance of distant metastasis increases significantly, and the rate of distant metastasis is 4.8%”27%, while autopsy finds that it is as high as 76%. Bone metastases are mostly manifested as bone pain, lung metastases as dyspnea and hemoptysis, and liver metastases as pain in the liver area and jaundice.
5.Local symptoms The metastases located in the supratentorial and infratentorial areas mostly show clinical symptoms such as weakness, hemiparesis, hemianopia, aphasia, ataxia and nystagmus.
6.Increased intracranial pressure Because of the rapid growth of tumor and severe edema around, the symptoms of increased intracranial pressure are more obvious, and patients will have a series of symptoms such as headache, malignant vomiting and drowsiness.