What is nasopharyngeal cancer?
The nasopharynx is the area in the upper part of your throat behind your nose. Nasopharyngeal cancer is cancer of the nasopharynx.
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Nasopharyngeal cancer is most common in people who live in southern China and southeast Asia or in those whose families came from those areas—it’s rare in other groups
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Nasopharyngeal cancer usually causes lumps in your neck
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You may also have congestion in your nose, hearing loss or a feeling of fullness or pain in your ears, and blood in your spit or when you blow your nose
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Doctors treat nasopharyngeal cancer with radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and sometimes surgery
What causes nasopharyngeal cancer?
Doctors don’t know the exact cause of nasopharyngeal cancer. They think the Epstein-Barr virus (the virus that causes mono Infectious Mononucleosis (Mono) Infectious mononucleosis, often called mono, is a viral infection that is most common in teens and young adults. Mono is spread by close contact, such as kissing, with infected people Symptoms... read more ) plays a role. You’re more likely to get nasopharyngeal cancer if:
What are the symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer?
How can doctors tell if I have nasopharyngeal cancer?
If doctors suspect nasopharyngeal cancer, they'll look in your nasopharynx using a special flexible viewing tube. If they see something that might be a cancer, they'll do a biopsy (remove a sample of the tissue for testing).
If you have nasopharyngeal cancer, doctors will do tests to see if your cancer has spread to other parts of your body. Such tests may include:
How do doctors treat nasopharyngeal cancer?
Nasopharyngeal cancer is more easily treated when caught early.
Doctors treat nasopharyngeal cancer with:
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Radiation therapy Radiation Therapy Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment that uses beams of radiation to destroy cancer cells and shrink cancer tumors. Doctors use radiation to treat many types of cancer, including head, neck... read more plus chemotherapy Chemotherapy Chemotherapy is a medicine that destroys cancer cells. Chemotherapy works by shutting down cell growth. But since all cells in the body grow, chemotherapy medicines also destroy some normal... read more
If the cancer comes back after this, doctors may do surgery.
Radiation to your nasopharynx may cause:
