Optic nerve involvement in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Five rare cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with optic nerve involvement are reported. Computerised Tomographic Scan (CT Scan) studies were performed in four of them. Evidence of intracranial spread of the tumour, from the roof of the fossa of Rosenmuller to the apex of the orbit through the cavernous sinus, was noted in three patients. In one of them there was extracranial extension of the tumour, to the orbit through the posterior ethmoid.