Take2 Prophecy™ Early Nasopharyngeal Cancer Screening — HKD$2200

Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is prevalent in southeast Asia and southern China, with an exceptionally high incidence in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hong Kong. Therefore it is also known as “Guangdong cancer” or “Guangdong tumour”. Epidemiological studies have shown that people who eat salted fish for a long time, especially the fishermen along the coast, have a higher risk of developing nasopharyngeal cancer than those who do not eat salted fish. In 2019, 35,082 people were diagnosed with cancer in Hong Kong, of which 781 were nasopharyngeal cancer cases, accounting for about 2.3% of all cancer diagnoses in Hong Kong^*. Compared to other cancers such as lung cancer or prostate cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer has a relatively early age of onset, with a peak age of onset between 40 to 60 years old, which is the prime time of life. And the incidence rate in men is nearly three times higher than in women!

*Source﹕2019 data from the Hong Kong Cancer Registry

Nasopharyngeal cancer is an abnormal growth of nasopharyngeal cells and is one of the most common head and neck cancers. The nasopharynx is located in the “covered” space in the centre of the skull, in the back of the nasal cavity and in the upper part of the throat, which is difficult to observe with the naked eye. The early symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer resemble flu or inflammatory illness, and patients may not relate to the signs of early nasopharyngeal cancer, causing a delay in seeking medical treatment. Some patients are diagnosed at a later stage and miss the prime time for treatment. Research data suggest that the number of cancer stages^{^} is one of the most critical factors affecting the survival rate of nasopharyngeal cancer. The higher the stage, the lower the survival rate. Individuals with a family history of nasopharyngeal cancer or other risk factors should undergo regular screening.

^Cancer staging provides information about the extent of disease spread, usually classified as Stage I to IV or Unstaged. The classification of staging is primarily based on the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)TNM staging system for most cancer sites.

Symptoms of nasopharyngeal cancer and flu:

Causes and risk factors of NPC:

• Family history – immediate family members (including parents, siblings and children) with nasopharyngeal cancer
• Infection with Epstein-Barr (EB) virus – EB virus infection can cause cytopathic changes in the body leading to cancer
• Smoking – has been shown to induce nasopharyngeal cancer in several studies.

Take2 Prophecy™ test is a non-invasive early screening test for nasopharyngeal cancer. Through blood examination, it identifies early NPC patients by analyzing human and NPC-associated genomic signatures of EBV DNA in the blood plasma using a combination of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies.