Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a rare disease worldwide.
However, in China, nasopharyngeal carcinoma is more common in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and Fujian, especially in Guangdong.
Because of this, nasopharyngeal carcinoma is also called [Guangdong cancer].
Why are Cantonese prone to nasopharyngeal carcinoma? If you know why you are prone to cancer, can you prevent it?
Heredity: Heaven Can’t Help Man
Unfortunately, the first reason cannot be prevented: after all, race and genetic genes are born and cannot be changed…
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is easy to appear in batches in the same race and family, precisely because the onset of nasopharyngeal carcinoma may be related to blood or heredity.
Some studies show that among 244 cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Zhongshan, Guangdong, 25 cases of family members and relatives also suffer from nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The incidence rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma among the Chinese descendants of Cantonese who immigrated to Europe and the United States is also significantly higher than that of the local population.
Another interesting study is that Cantonese speakers are more likely to develop nasopharyngeal carcinoma than Cantonese speakers of Hakka and Chaoshan.
Some people say that this is due to the high incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma caused by the heavy [nasal sound] in Cantonese, but in fact it is not. Most of the ancestors of Cantonese who speak Hakka and Chaoshan dialects migrated from the north.
In the final analysis, this phenomenon is still race-specific, and genetic factors are the main culprit.
Living habits: like to eat salted fish and bacon,
Traditional Guangzhou residents like to eat pickled salted fish and bacon, which, like smoked roasted meat and pickled pickled cabbage, contains a large amount of [nitrite].
These nitrite can become [nitrosamines] in the body, and nitrosamines are one of the most concerned carcinogens in the past 30 years. Nitrite can induce not only nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but also liver cancer, esophageal cancer and renal cancer.
However, with the improvement of modern Cantonese’s health awareness and food preservation technology, they eat less and less salted fish and bacon.
Eating as little pickled salted fish, bacon and pickled vegetables as possible is one of the tricks to prevent nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Infection: EB Virus Causes Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
There is a virus closely related to nasopharyngeal carcinoma, called EB virus. This is also the first virus found to have obvious relationship with human tumors.
In some hospitals in Guangdong, doctors will check EB virus infection for all patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
At the same time, EB virus is also listed as a screening item. If there are more EB virus antibodies in the blood, there will be a higher risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. At this time, doctors will recommend nasopharyngeal endoscopy and other clinical examinations to detect nasopharyngeal carcinoma earlier.
Friends may wonder, since EB virus causes cancer, wouldn’t it be good not to be infected? However, this cannot be done at present.
However, there is no need to panic too much. EB virus infection is a very common thing all over the world.
In our country, the infection rate of EB virus is as high as 90%, and most people are infected as early as infants.
Natural Environment: High Nickel and Low Selenium
The natural environment in the region causes the imbalance of people’s intake of some trace elements. For example, in Guangdong, the content of nickel in soil, water and rice is higher than that in other regions. The content of nickel in hair of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients is also higher than that of healthy people.
High nickel diet may be a promoter of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
It has been proved in animal experiments that excessive intake of nickel will [amplify] the carcinogenic effect of nitrite.
Prevention is not easy, but early detection and treatment can be carried out.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is related to many genetic and environmental factors. These four points are not the whole cause of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Among these four points, except that pickled bacon and salted fish can be eaten less and nickel content is too high to move (which is relatively expensive), the rest are inevitable.
Therefore, the real focus of preventing nasopharyngeal carcinoma is to find it as soon as possible.
If the family has suffered from nasopharyngeal carcinoma or is in Guangdong, they need to pay more attention to personalized nasopharyngeal carcinoma examination during physical examination and tumor screening.
Whether it is what cancer, early detection and treatment are always the most effective.