When nasopharyngeal cancer reaches the 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 cancer?
Generally, the common late symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer include: 1. Eye symptoms: If the tumor invades the orbit or the nerves related to the eye, the late symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer may include visual impairment or even blindness, visual field defect, diplopia, protrusion and limitation of eye movement, neuroparalytic keratitis, etc. Optic nerve atrophy and edema can be seen in fundus examination. Most of these manifestations are already advanced, but some patients still seek treatment for this condition.
2. Symptoms of cranial nerve damage: Due to the infiltration of nasopharyngeal cancer into the surrounding area, any of the brain nerves compressed will show corresponding late symptoms and signs of nasopharyngeal cancer. 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.
3.Cervical lymph node enlargement: caused by tumor metastasis to cervical lymph nodes, the incidence is as high as 79.37%, which can be unilateral or bilateral. The enlarged lymph nodes in the neck are painless, hard, movable in the early stage, and fixed with skin or deep tissue adhesion in the late stage.
4.Distant metastasis: nasopharyngeal cancer can metastasize to all parts of the body, but bone, lung and liver are the most common. And multiple organs may metastasize at the same time. The late symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma will appear according to the different metastatic sites.
5. Cachexia: the manifestation of end stage and death due to it, and also death due to sudden haemorrhage. This is also a common advanced symptom of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
6. Nasal congestion: The tumor invades the posterior nostril and nasal cavity, and there may be obvious nasal congestion symptoms.
7. Snotty blood or nasal obstruction: Since the blood vessels of tumor in nasopharyngeal cavity are brittle and the tumor is often covered by numerous membranes, the symptom of snotty blood is one of the early symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer. In severe cases, a lot of nasal obstruction may occur. The blood in the nose often occurs in the morning after waking up, and the blood in the nose is discharged from the mouth, and the amount of blood is not much, which is often neglected by patients or treated as hemoptysis in the respiratory department.
8.Eyelid ptosis and eye fixation: it is related to the damage of the motoneural nerve. The loss of vision is related to optic nerve damage or orbital cone invasion. Vocal deafness and dysphagia are related to damage of vagus nerve and glossopharyngeal nerve.
Diplopia: Due to tumor invasion of the abducens nerve, it often causes double shadow in outward vision. Invasion of the talocrural nerve often causes inward strabismus and diplopia. It is often damaged together with trigeminal nerve.
10. Tinnitus and hearing loss: The tumor infiltrates and compresses the eustachian tube, causing negative pressure in the tympanic chamber.
11. Headache: the most common symptom of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, mostly unilateral persistent pain, mostly at the top of the face.
12.Tongue muscle atrophy and tongue extension deflection: nasopharyngeal cancer directly invades or lymph nodes metastasize to the posterior region of the caudate or the hypoglossal nerve canal, which invades the hypoglossal nerve and causes tongue deflection to the diseased side, accompanied by tongue muscle atrophy. If the inferior lingual nerve is damaged bilaterally, it will cause difficulty in tongue extension. The incidence of tongue extension deviation is second only to facial palsy.
13.Facial paresthesia: It refers to the numbness of facial skin, and the clinical examination is the loss or disappearance of pain and tactile sensation. Tumor invading the cavernous sinus often causes damage to the 1st or 2nd branch of trigeminal nerve.
What to do for advanced nasopharyngeal cancer Because of the deep and narrow location of nasopharyngeal cavity and the proximity of many important blood vessels, nerves and lymphatic tissues, surgical treatment is very difficult. Clinically, radiotherapy is the main treatment method for nasopharyngeal hypofractionated cancer, and the combination of Chinese and Western medicine is the general treatment principle. Radical radiation therapy is the main treatment for early-stage nasopharyngeal hypofractionated carcinoma, while palliative radiation therapy is mainly used in the treatment of mid- to late-stage nasopharyngeal hypofractionated carcinoma. Although radiation therapy has a direct effect on killing nasopharyngeal hypofractionated cancer cells, it can also damage normal cells, so clinically, it is often combined with Chinese medicine treatment to reduce toxicity and increase effectiveness. For the treatment of nasopharyngeal hypofractionated carcinoma recurring after radiotherapy, if the lesion is confined to the posterior or anterior wall of nasopharynx, there is no skull base bone destruction, the general condition is good, and those who have recently undergone radiotherapy and are not suitable for further radiotherapy, resection of the lesion can be considered. In addition, radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy can improve the treatment effect of nasopharyngeal hypofractionated carcinoma.