Abstract:

Objective    To investigate the clinical presentation and misdiagnostic causes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods    The data of 82 cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated from November 2002 to November 2009 were analyzed. Results    The clinical presentation included epistaxis, nasal obstruction, tinnitus, hearing loss, headache, mass of neck, cranial nerve involvement and Horner′s syndrome. The positive rate of EBV-VCA-IgA was 93.90%. At the time of initial diagnosis, the rate of misdiagnosis was 67.07% for all cases. Conclusion    The clinical presentation of NPC is complex, and so NPC is prone to be misdiagnosed. It is necessary for a patient with any of these symptoms to receive careful examination for the ear, nasopharynx and nose.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasms； Clinical presentation； Misdiagnose1