65-year-old Liu Bo is from Cantonese, and especially likes to eat salted fish. Two years ago, he had nasal congestion and runny nose. He thought it was rhinitis, but he didn’t care. Later, it became more and more serious, with bleeding and ulceration. Recently, there was an unpleasant smell from the nose.

Accompanied by his family, Uncle Liu went to the hospital to register. The condition of Uncle Liu’s nose shocked the doctors. Uncle Liu’s nasal septum had been pierced, and the two nostrils were connected. Obviously, it was not rhinitis, and he was finally diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer.

First, a cruel phenomenon: nasopharyngeal cancer is often mistaken for rhinitis

< p>According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, about 50% of nasopharyngeal cancers in the world occur in China. Due to the relatively hidden location of nasopharyngeal cancer, more than 70% of patients are already in the local and regional advanced stage when they are discovered. Due to the limitation of diagnosis and treatment conditions in primary hospitals, the first misdiagnosis rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is about 60%,It is easy to be misdiagnosed as rhinitis, otitis media, migraine, sinusitis and lymph node inflammation.. Rhinitis is a very common disease in life. So, what exactly is rhinitis and what is nasopharyngeal cancer?

Rhinitis: Mainly chronic rhinitis, a chronic inflammation of the nasal mucosa and submucosa, and also a disease .

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma: is a malignant tumor originating in the nasopharynx, usually in the roof of the nasopharynx Posterior wall and pharyngeal recess.

Second, how to distinguish rhinitis and nasopharyngeal cancer?

The symptoms of rhinitis and nasopharyngeal cancer are very similar, how should they be distinguished? Deng Xiaocong, an ear, nose and throat specialist and deputy director of head and neck surgery, Hainan Cancer HospitalIntroduced, first of all, RhinitisBasically, symptoms of nasal congestion will occur, and the cause of nasal discomfort can be found, such as exposure to allergens, repeated colds, etc. After symptomatic drug treatment, nasal congestion and other symptoms can usually be cured. Relief quickly.

while nasopharyngeal carcinomais a stuffy nose caused by tumor growth that blocks the back nostril , Ordinary medication is ineffective, and it will continue to have symptoms of nasal congestion for a long time.

Therefore, rhinitis and nasopharyngeal cancer can be distinguished in terms of whether the cause of the nose discomfort can be found and whether the nose discomfort can be relieved.

3. What are the symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer?

When suffering from nasopharyngeal cancer, the body will also send out some signals. At this time, it is necessary to be vigilant and go to the hospital for examination as soon as possible.

1, stuffy nose, runny nose

stuffy nose is an early symptom of nasopharyngeal cancer , most of them are unilateral nasal obstruction, which may cause bilateral nasal obstruction due to the development of the disease; Usually blood in the nose or sucking blood out of the mouth, usually after waking up in the morning.

2. Tinnitus, hearing loss

A feeling of occlusion in the ear, Unilateral hearing lossOr tinnitus is also a common symptom in the early stage of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which is caused by the compression of the Eustachian tube by the tumor, and may also appear stuck Other otitis media.

3. A lump in the neck

Many nasopharyngeal cancer patients are It is because a mass is felt in the neck, which is actually a swollen lymph node, which is easily misdiagnosed as inflammation. If it is a neck mass that continues to grow rapidly, after anti-inflammatory treatment, it is ineffective, and it has poor mobility, hard texture, no pain or itching, and multiple neck lumps that merge into a group, you should go to the hospital for examination in time.

4. Headache

This is also a common early symptom of nasopharyngeal cancer, about It accounts for 68.6%, and can even be used as the only symptom or the first symptom. In the early stage of nasopharyngeal cancer,the headache is intermittent and the location is not fixed, in the advanced stage When there is a fixed pain site, a persistent migraine.

Fourth, why is the high incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer in Cantonese people related to salted fish?

Speaking of areas with high incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer, I have to mention Guangdong, which is about 20 times that of areas with low incidence. Nasopharyngeal cancer is even called “Cantonese cancer”. It is also inextricably linked with the salted fish that Liu Bo likes:

1. Genetic susceptibility

Academician Zeng Yixin, Dean of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Hospital

span>The research team led by the research team discovered the genetic susceptibility loci of the nasopharyngeal carcinoma population, and found that nasopharyngeal carcinoma does have certain heredity, and some people have a higher congenital risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

2. Food like pickled food

People in Guangdong like to eat pickled food Food, Guangdong’s geographical location is near the sea. Foods such as preserved meat, dried fish and salted fish are popular with many Cantonese people. However, preserved food contains a lot of nitrosamine precursors, which are easily converted into carcinogenic substances in the human body. /span>Nitrosamines.

3. Epstein-Barr virus infection

Epstein-Barr virus is a gamma herpes virus that mainly infects B lymphocytes and epithelial cells in the nasopharynx are closely related to the occurrence and development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Scientists found that the high-risk EB virus infected by Cantonese people belongs to the BALF2_CCT subtype, which greatly increases the risk of developing nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

4. Poor environment

Environmental factors are also factors that lead to the high incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Guangdong , the nickel content in water, rice and soil in some areas of Guangdong exceeds the standard, and the content of some trace elements is insufficient, which is also one of the reasons for the disease.

Learn to distinguish the symptoms of rhinitis and nasopharyngeal cancer, which is helpful for early detection of nasopharyngeal cancer. I hope everyone can maintain good living habits and stay away from bad carcinogenic factors. No nasopharyngeal cancer. #Health2022# #Health Star Project#

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