Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the clinical presentation and the cancer staging of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) between pediatric and adult populations to highlight the main characteristics of this disease within the two subgroups.
Materiel and methods: It is a retrospective study including all patients with a primary diagnosis of NPC over a period of 19 years. The pediatric group included patients aged less then 16 years old.
Results: A total of 80 patients were included. The pediatric population represented 22.5% of the cases. No difference in gender distribution was found (p˃.05). The most common presenting symptom was neck mass in children (77.8% vs. 48.4%, p = .02), and nasal obstruction in adult patients (64.5% vs. 16.7%, p < .01). The median time between the presenting symptom's onset and the diagnosis was 5 months. The diagnosis of NPC was delayed in pediatric patients compared to adults (<0.05). We noted a predominance of patients with stages III and IV (32.5% and 40%, respectively) with no difference between the two subgroups (p˃.05).
Conclusion: Our study showed some differences in NPC clinical features between pediatric patients and adults. Neck mass was the most common symptom in children. The initial presentation is sometimes misleading. NPC was mainly diagnosed in advanced locoregional stages in both pediatric and adult patients. Efforts toward early diagnosis are of great importance.
Keywords: Early diagnosis; Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Neoplasm staging; Pediatrics.
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