Tuberculosis of the nasopharynx following radiotherapy

We report the case history of a patient who was treated with radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. During follow-up, she showed signs, symptoms and radiological evidence of disease recurrence and progression. However, repeated biopsies of the posterior nasal space (PNS) failed to demonstrate malignancy. A diagnosis of nasopharyngeal tuberculosis was finally made when tissue from a PNS biopsy stained positive for acid-fast bacillus. The patient responded to antituberculous chemotherapy.