Symptoms of early primary cancer: 1. The initial symptoms of stage I cases were, in order of prevalence, blood in the nose (32.7%), tinnitus (23.5%), headache (19.4%), nasal congestion (12.2%), hearing loss (10.2%), and no symptoms of primary cancer (2%).
2. The initial symptoms of stage II cases were, in order, enlarged lymph nodes in the neck (40.1%), headache (13.2%), runny nose (13.2%), tinnitus (12.5%), nasal congestion (9.2%), hearing loss (8.6%), and no primary symptoms (3.2%).
Symptoms in the middle and late stages: (1) invasive ocular symptoms: visual impairment (may be blind), visual field defects, diplopia, protrusion and limited movement of the eye, nerve palsy keratitis. Optic nerve atrophy and edema can be seen on fundus examination.
(2) Cerebral nerve damage symptoms: trigeminal nerve, abducens nerve, linguopharyngeal nerve and hypoglossal nerve are more frequently involved. It causes persistent headache or trigeminal neuralgia and numbness on the affected side.
(3) Symptoms of compression or erosion of metastatic cervical lymph nodes: causes various symptoms of pharyngeal paralysis such as dysphagia, hoarseness, hemiparalysis and atrophy of the tongue. Cervical sympathetic nerve palsy may present with symptoms such as sunken eyes, drooping eyelids, narrow pupils, and absence of sweating on the forehead.
(4) Distant metastasis and cachexia: systemic organ failure and also death due to sudden hemorrhage.