Nasopharyngeal cancer is a malignant tumor that occurs in the top and side walls of the nasopharynx, and the age of onset starts to rise rapidly from 30 years old and reaches its peak in the age group of 50-59 years old. In China, there are obvious geographical differences in the incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, with a trend of high in the south and low in the north, with high incidence in southern and southwestern provinces, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Fujian and Hong Kong, and less in northern and northwestern China. The incidence rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Guangdong high incidence area is 35-40/100,000.
Commonly used treatment methods for nasopharyngeal cancer are as follows: 1. Radiotherapy: Since most nasopharyngeal cancers are low-differentiated squamous carcinomas, radiotherapy is preferred. Different radiation doses are given according to the patient’s general condition and lesion scope. Local implantation of radiotherapy particles can also be used for brachytherapy, which has achieved very good efficacy.
2.Photodynamic therapy: If there are still residual foci or local recurrence in the nasopharynx 3 months after radiotherapy, photodynamic therapy or surgery can be used. Or photodynamic therapy first, and then radiotherapy after 1 month.
3.Surgery: If there are still residual metastases in the neck after radiotherapy, the residual foci can be removed surgically. Surgery can only be performed in a few cases such as limited lesions in the nasopharynx that do not recede or recur after radiotherapy or metastatic lymph nodes in the neck that do not recede after radiotherapy and the primary foci in the nasopharynx have been controlled. Radical neck contouring, modified neck contouring and simple excision of lymph nodes in the neck can be performed for those with metastatic lymphoma in the neck.
4.Chemotherapy: It is mainly used in middle and late stage cases, which cannot be controlled and recurred after radiotherapy, and is an adjuvant or palliative treatment. Chemotherapy particles can also be implanted locally or synchronously with radiotherapy particles to achieve the purpose of synchronous radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which has achieved very good results. Arterial cannulation chemotherapy or interventional chemoembolization of nasopharyngeal lesions can also be carried out.
5.Thermal ablation therapy: such as laser, microwave, radiofrequency, argon knife, etc., using high temperature to ablate the lesion, with the advantages of light trauma and fast recovery.
6.Cryotherapy: CO2 or liquid nitrogen can be used to freeze and destroy the lesion to eliminate the lesion.
7, gene therapy: recombinant P53 adenovirus gene therapy to achieve initial results. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy can be administered before and after local injection of gene drugs.