A child with epistaxis, reduced hearing and cervical lymphadenopathy: a rare case of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in a child

Although nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is common in this part of the world, the incidence among children is still very low worldwide. The diagnosis is sometimes delayed because of the late reporting of the symptom by the patient or parents, or difficulty in reaching the final diagnosis due to its hidden anatomical location. The challenges include the difficult endoscopy in children, inability to differentiate an adenoid from the tumour on radiograph and often the inconclusive fine needle aspiration findings. If the tumour mass at Fossa of Rosenmuller can be clearly appreciated and biopsied with undoubtedly proven histology of NPC, the diagnosis can be straight forward and treatment can be commenced as early as possible. We report a 10-year-old child presented with bilateral neck cervical lymphadenopathy and epistaxis with fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of the neck mass reported as lymphoma. Further work-up confirmed he was suffering from NPC.