Dietary choices, such as drinking green tea and coffee, could reduce the risk of developing nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), one of the most common head and neck cancers in Taiwan, a physician at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) said yesterday.
NPC is a head and neck cancer that starts in the nasopharynx, the upper part of the throat, behind the nose, and is closely associated with genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and exposure to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), NTUH Department of Otolaryngology attending physician Wang Cheng-ping (王成平) said.
About 1,500 people are diagnosed with NPC in Taiwan every year, and it is about three times more common in men than women, while people aged 40 to 55 comprise the biggest group of diagnoses, but it can occur at any age, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Agriculture
Early symptoms of the cancer include unilateral hearing loss, tinnitus (a sensation of noise such as a ringing or roaring), chronic unilateral nasal obstruction or stuffiness, blood-stained nasal discharge or saliva, and a painless lump in the neck, and they are often overlooked as they are relatively subtle, Wang said.
More than 70 percent of cases are diagnosed at advanced stages, and the disease is primarily treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy, which typically lasts for about two to four months, he said.
NTUH had a mission to seek the cause, and identify high-risk groups and ways of early diagnosis, as well as to improve patients’ survival rate and life quality, he said.
NTUH said its NPC research team, in collaboration with the US National Cancer Institute and Academia Sinica, established Taiwan’s first multi-case familial NPC cohort (1996 to 2004 and 2006 to 2020).
A series of long-term follow-up studies revealed a significantly higher prevalence of EBV antibody positivity among family members of NPC patients, it said.
Familial aggregation and EBV antibody positivity are major risk factors for NPC, it said.
The hospital said that through a study including about 1,800 NPC patients and a control group of 2,000 people, it also found that drinking two cups (about 500ml) of green tea or coffee per week can reduce the risk of developing NPC.
Other dietary choices, including eating more fresh fish or vegetables high in vitamin A (such as carrots), were also associated with reduced NPC risk, Wang said.
People who tested positive in a serum anti-EBV antibodies test, or have family members diagnosed with NPC, should get regular checkups with an ear, nose and throat doctor.
Moreover, people who tested positive in a plasma EBV DNA test and those who have NPC symptoms for more than two weeks are recommended to see a doctor as soon as possible, he said.
The age-adjusted five-year survival rate for NPC patients treated at NTUH is 78 percent, exceeding the national average of 74 percent and surpassing the global average of 62 percent, the hospital said.
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