Clinical features of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in sudan : a study of 103 cases

Abstract EN

Objective: nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the second leading cancer among men in Sudan.

The objective of this work is to study the demographic and clinical features of NPC in Sudanese patients and to compare the results with international series. Methods: this is a retrospective hospital-based study conducted at the Institute of Nuclear Medicine, Molecular Biology and Oncology (INMO), University of Gezira; Wad Medani, Sudan.

Hospital records of all patients with NPC who presented during the period from January 2000 to December 2005 were reviewed.

Parameters analyzed were age, sex, ethnic group, residence and clinical presentation. Results: the total number of case records reviewed was 103.

Most cases were Gezira State inhabitants (61.2%).

Age distribution ranged from 11 to 82 years with a mean age of 45.5 years.

The male to female ratio was 2:1.

The average duration of symptoms was 16.1 weeks.

The most common clinical presentations in the order of frequency were cervical lymph node enlargement (73.2%), nasal obstruction (33.9%), hearing impairment (27.7%), epistaxis (22.3%), ear pain (18.8%) and palatal paralysis (14.3%).

The most affected ethnic group was Sudanese Arabs (74.8%).

The histological types were WHO-type III in (73.8%) of patients and WHO-type II in (26.2%) of patients, WHO type-I was not encountered in this study. Conclusions: nasopharyngeal cancer is a common cancer in Sudan and affects men more than women.

Patients usually present late mostly with cervical lymphadenopathy and nasal symptoms like obstruction and epistaxis.