NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA

A review of the reports of nasopharyngeal carcinomas is made difficult by the various titles used to describe them. To some extent this confusion exists because of variations in the structural arrangement and meager differentiation of the tumor cells, but especially because these tumor tissues have been found metastatic in cervical lymph nodes and the primary focus was not considered, or was overlooked during the life of the patient, or in the body when the postmortem examination was made. Consequently, the metastases in the lymph nodes were regarded as primary growths, and the alinement of the observations with such an interpretation brought confusion. Among the descriptive titles used are carcinoma, epithelioma, transitional cell carcinoma, lympho-epithelioma and endothelioma as well as others when the reports are without an adequate gross or histologic description. The review of nasopharyngeal carcinoma by Norcross¹ in 1913 mentioned about fifty-five growths, and at the end