Early diagnosis and treatment are beneficial to the treatment effect. Experts from Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou remind that once symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer appear, one should go to regular medical institution for examination timely.

Diagnosis methods of nasopharyngeal cancer

1. Nasopharyngoscopy

Nasopharyngoscopy is one of the most important nasopharyngeal cancer diagnosis methods. It is simple and reliable. The endoscope is inserted into the patient’s nasopharynx and throat through his nasal cavity to check whether there is abnormal lesion in the mucosa of nasopharynx and throat.

2. X-ray examination

X-ray examinations, among which nasopharynx lateral projection and skull base radiography are the most common ones, can reveal the coverage of the cancer and the destruction of the skull base. It is useful in determining the stage and treatment plan of nasopharyngeal cancer.

3. RNI (Radioactive nuclide imaging of bone)

Radioactive nuclide bone imaging is a harmless and sensitive diagnosis method. It is usually recognized that in bone metastasis diagnosis, the incidence of positive result by bone scan is 30% higher than that by X-ray radiography. Moreover, bone scan can detect the lesion 3-6 months earlier than X-ray do.

4. CT examination

CT examination can reveal the location of the tumor in the nasal cavity, find out whether the lumen is deformed and symmetrical and whether the pharyngeal recess has become shallow or disappeared. What is more, it can also show the invasion outside the nasopharyngeal cavity, for example, metastasis to nasal cavity, oral pharynx, parapharyngeal space, infratemporal fossa, carotid sheath, pterygopalatine fossa, maxillary sinus, ethmoid sinus, eye sockets, intracranial cavernous sinus, posterior pharynx and lymph nodes of the neck.

5. B-ultrasound examination

B-ultrasound examination is widely used in nasopharyngeal cancer diagnosis and treatment. It is simple, convenient and harmless. Besides checking nasopharyngeal cancer metastasis to lymph nodes of the neck, it is also used in checking liver and retroperitoneal lymph node to see whether there are metastases to these parts.

6. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

MRI can clearly reveal skull layers, sulcus, gyrus, grey matter, white matter, brain ventricle, cerebrospinal fluid duct and blood vessel, etc. It can precisely reveal the tumor boundary and help determine whether there is injury in the hind brain after radiotherapy.

7. Serodiagnosis

As the EB virus antibody level of nasopharyngeal cancer patients is obviously different from that of other malignant cancer patients and healthy people, serodiagnosis can be used as an assistant method to diagnose nasopharyngeal cancer.

8. Pathology diagnosis

Pathology diagnosis is the basis of nasopharyngeal cancer diagnosis. Ways to extract the nasopharyngeal cancer living tissues include:

A. Extract from the oral cavity

B. Extract from the nasopharynx

C. Fine needle aspiration from the nasopharynx