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Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a squamous cell tumor that usually develops around the lateral wall of the nasopharynx near the Eustachian tube ostium. Overall it is a rare cause of cancer worldwide, although it has a high frequency in some endemic regions of Southeast Asia and Alaska. In Mexico, nasopharyngeal carcinoma is not listed among the 20 leading causes of cancer in the country. The etiology of NPC has been linked mainly to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), but also involves genetic, racial, environmental and dietary risk factors. The clinical presentation is non-specific and this can be misleading to the primary care physician. The most common symptomatic presentation is cervical lymphadenopathy, which can be bilateral and voluminous up to 50% of patients. This paper reports the case of a 70 year-old man diagnosed with NPC, who was admitted in the internal medicine ward because of bilateral cervical lymphadenopathy, and a multidisciplinary approach was required to establish the final diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: to present the clinical data that would anticipate the risk of malignancy in children subject to a lymph node biopsy for cervical lymphadenopathy. Methods: this is a descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study that included 43 patients who were seen for cervical adenopathy in a 10-year period at the Hospital del Niño "Dr. Rodolfo Nieto Padrón". Results: 23 cases turned out to be malignant disease (Hodgking disease being the most frequent) and 20 non-malignant diseases (infectious or reactive). The age at the moment of the diagnosis, duration of clinical progression and the number of nodes involved (2 or more) and the size of the lymph node biopsied were the risk factors for malignancy. Non associated risk factors were sex, age of the patient, fever and spleen enlargement. Conclusion: Hodgkin disease was the most common that affected boys in school age. The size of the lymph node bigger than 3 cm and bilateral cervical lymph nodes and the progression of the disease shorter than 6 months, were the most significant differences between malignant and benign adenopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]