Cancer of the nasopharynx in childhood

Between 1964 and 1983, 54,304 cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients were diagnosed at the Tumor Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China. Of the total, 53 (0.1%) cases were younger than 14 years of age, and of these, none were Stage I, four (8%) were Stage II, 36 (68%) were Stage III, and 12 (23%) were Stage IV. Among all cases, 26% had initial symptoms characterized by lesions of the nasopharynx and the majority by cervical mass. Among the children, symptoms involving the cranial nerve were rarely observed. There were significant differences between adults and children on histopathology other than the ratio of carcinoma to sarcoma (4:1 for children; 443:1 for adults). Among the poorly differentiated carcinoma cases, vesicular nucleus carcinoma was observed more frequently in children than adults. The prognosis for children with NPC is poor with a 5-year survival rate of 21% in this series. If NPC is diagnosed early and radiotherapy begun promptly (with doses greater than 5000 cGy), the prognosis may be improved.