Correlating clinical appearance of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with tumour staging

Since there is a tendency for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) to exhibit sub -mucosal spread and endophytic growth, it would be useful to know if NPC re mained inconspicuous in the post-nasal space (PNS) even in advanced stages of disease, The aim of this study was to find out if there was a correlatio n between tumour appearance in the PNS and tumour stage. One hundred and tw enty-two consecutive patients with NPC were studied. The appearance of a tu mour in the PNS was classified as to whether or not it was obviously malign ant-looking (via naso-endoscopy), Tumour stagings were undertaken according to computerised tomography (CT) scan findings. Of the patients studied, 67 (54.9%) had obvious malignant-looking lesions, Tumour appearance was found to correlate with tumour-staging (p=0.023, chi-squared test). There was, t herefore, a tendency for early tumours to present as inconspicuous or innoc uous-looking lesions, whereas advanced tumours tended to appear as obvious malignant-looking lesions in the PNS, The clinical significance of these fi ndings is discussed.