Metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a case report and review

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common epithelial malignancies in the head and neck region with a marked racial predilection in Southern Chinese, which metastasize to parotid gland, and it is extremely rare. In these populations, it is usually associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The existence of EBV in tumor cells, aberrant type of antibodies against EBV antigens in patient sera, and the same increased viral DNA in patient circulation as nasopharyngeal region highlights the role of EBV during NPC development. Here we report a rare case of parotid gland metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. A 37-year-old male, was admitted to Peking University Shenzhen Hospital for diagnosis of a pre-existent (half-year) painless mass in the left parotid region. A 3.5 cm mass was found in the left parotid. It was firm, fixed and medium hardness. On the basis of clinical medical history, morphological, immunohistochemical and molecular biology findings, a diagnosis of stage II, Epstein Barr-virus positive, parotid gland metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and nasopharyngeal non-keratinizing carcinoma were made. The primary symptom of parotid gland mass with NPC is often misdiagnosed, which has been admitted to be a pivotal cause of therapy failure in patients.