NPC has various metastatic pathways, such as lymph node metastasis, local invasion, and distant metastasis in late stage, which need to be diagnosed in time.
1. Lymph node metastasis: about 60% of nasopharyngeal cancer patients have cervical lymph node enlargement as the first symptom of nasopharyngeal cancer, and there are often unilateral lymph node metastasis in deep upper cervical group, which can gradually develop to bilateral.
2. Local invasion: the tumor can directly invade the parapharyngeal space; tumors occurring in the pharyngeal fossa are easy to destroy the bone of the skull base, or through the rupture hole and the internal carotid artery, invade the tip of the rocky bone, leading to the damage of cerebral nerves.
3. Distant metastasis, nasopharyngeal cancer in advanced stage can be distantly metastasized, and the common sites are bone, lung and liver.
After diagnosing nasopharyngeal cancer, patients should actively cooperate with treatment to prevent distant metastasis and improve survival rate.