Early self-diagnosis: 1.Snotty blood: about 3/4 patients have this symptom, most of them have this symptom in the process of washing and rinsing in the early morning, when they suck back the nasopharyngeal secretion with force. The tumor surface mucosa will be ulcerated and infected, and blood in the nose will appear. Special note: Blood in the snot is easy to be ignored, and it is easy to be considered as “heat” in the two regions, thinking that it can be solved by drinking herbal tea, thus delaying the treatment. Xiao Jizhang, Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Laboratory 2, Nasal congestion: about 1/2 of the patients have this manifestation. Cancer foci blocking the posterior nasal aperture or invading the posterior nasal cavity can cause nasal congestion, mostly on one side of the nose. Special note: High alert should be taken when unilateral nasal congestion occurs and is getting worse. Nasal congestion often occurs when you have a cold, and it can occur bilaterally or alternately, and it will be reduced or disappeared when the cold gets better. 3. Tinnitus and stuffy ears: There is a tube connected between nasopharynx and ear, and this tube is called “pharyngeal tube”. When a tumor infiltrates the nasopharynx and presses on the eustachian tube, a feeling of ear blockage, tinnitus or even hearing loss can occur. Special Note: If the above symptoms appear in one ear and progress faster, you should seek medical consultation in time. 4. Persistent headache: About 1/4 patients have this as the first symptom, and it is often manifested as persistent headache on one side. Special note: There are many causes of headache. If persistent headache occurs and cannot be explained by other diseases, head and neck examination should be performed. In addition, some patients will have facial numbness on the same side of the headache, and the skin of the face will feel numb, tingling or the feeling of small insects crawling, and the numbness will gradually expand or worsen, which may cause difficulty in opening the mouth and weakness in chewing.
5.Ocular symptoms: Since the nerves governing eye activity mostly pass through the front and top of nasopharynx, when the lesion compresses these nerves, it can cause double vision (double vision) and limited eye movement. This is the metastatic lesion of nasopharyngeal cancer metastasizing to cervical lymph nodes. The swollen lymph nodes first appear in the upper neck, especially behind the mandible (behind the earlobe), and gradually develop into the lower neck and supraclavicular fossa. The lymph nodes start as a single lymph node and later become multiple, mostly painless. Tips:The incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer is higher in the southern provinces of China, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Fujian and Jiangxi, while Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan and Sihui in Guangdong Province, where the vernacular dialect is spoken, as well as Hong Kong, China, are considered to be The highest incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer in the world. Middle-aged and elderly people: nasopharyngeal cancer is mostly seen in middle-aged and elderly people with family history: nasopharyngeal cancer has a tendency to gather in families, and about 10% of patients with nasopharyngeal cancer have a family history of cancer; residents of areas with high incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer: especially those who speak baihua.
Basic treatment: 1. Radiotherapy
Low melting point lead block conventional technique ・ 3DCRT technique ・ IMRT technique ・ Brachytherapy
・ Internal radiation
2.The treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is mainly based on radiation therapy. The 5-year survival rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma can reach more than 60% after standardized treatment, and early-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma can achieve radical effect through radiotherapy alone. The main reasons for treatment failure are distant metastasis and local recurrence. Since nasopharyngeal cancer is sensitive to chemotherapy, chemotherapy has potential benefits to improve local control rate and reduce distant metastasis, therefore, the combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy has become a hot spot for research. For recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, chemotherapy is an important and sometimes even the only tool