Rare case of metachronous tumor: Nasopharyngeal and colorectal carcinoma

The study presents an unusual case of a patient with a personal history of a rectal malignant tumor in 2013, who after a period of 6 years, was diagnosed with an advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, locally and regionally invasive. It is possible that the colorectal malignant tumor affected the development of the nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or the other way around, depending on the presence of genetic instabilities. These two types of malignant tumors share a series of genes that can influence their progression, i.e., SPINK-6 and Bcl-2. The particularity of this case stems from the development of a metachronous tumor, a rectal adenocarcinoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, two malignant tumors with different patient prognosis and disease progression. Research needs to be continued on the multidisciplinary therapeutic management of nasopharyngeal cancer and the ways of identifying this cancer type in its early stages, considering that most patients come from a rural environment, have poor medical education, a number of comorbidities, and who frequently ignore the signs, symptoms and sometimes the treatment offered.