Aclinicopathological study of nasopharyngeal masses

ABSTRACT

177 patients with nasopharyngeal masses were studied. The neoplastic lesions constituted about 48% of the nasopharyngeal masses. 39% were malignant and 8.5% were benign. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma was the commonest malignant tumour of the nasopharynx [55.0%] with a peak age incidence between 40-70 years, and a male to female ratio of 21. Malignant lymphoma was the second in order of frequency [34.8%], mainly of the non-Hodghin's variety [87.5%]. The mean age was 42.2 years and the male to female ratio was 1.621. The rest of the malignant lesions were diagnosed as rhabdomyosarcoma [4.4%], adenoid cystic carcinoma [2.9%] and fibrosarcoma [2.9%]. In this study, angiofibroma constituted 8.5% of nasopharyngeal masses with a mean age of 14.5 years and was only in males. Adenoids or lymphoid hyperplasia formed about 11.3% with a mean age of 19 years and male to female ratio of 1.21. The inflammatory lesions of the nasopharynx constituted about 36.15 of nasopharyngeal masses with a male to female ratio of 31. Scleroma of the nasopharynx made 23.9% of the inflammatory lesions. One patient was diagnosed as tuberculous nasopharyngitis, the rest of the inflammatory lesions [70.1%] were diagnosed histologically as chronic non-specific inflammation. The differentiation between benign and malignant nasopharyngeal masses depends upon histological examination and therefore accurate biopsy techniques are essential. Transnasal biopsies using topical anaesthesia invite inadequate sampling of tissue with resultant delay in diagnosis. Early recognition and treatment favorable influence survival. Complaints of pain, epistaxis, trismus or cervical mass are uncommon in patients with benign lesions and should alert the clinician to the probability of malignancy. Clinical symptoms suggestive of malignancy demand prompt and conclusive evaluation