Ben Cho was 30 years old when he was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or cancer of the nose.
Although rare in other parts of the world, where it tends to affect fewer than 10 out of a million people, the cancer has a much higher incidence among males in Hong Kong - 200 to 300 out of a million.
According to 2009 statistics from the Hospital Authority's Cancer Registry, it's the seventh most common type of cancer in the city - ranked sixth among men but not in the top 10 among women. People from South China, along with those in Northern Africa and Alaska, are at greater risk for this otherwise rare disease.
This insidious disease can be hard to spot. Its early symptoms can be as nondescript as a stuffy nose, headaches and frequent ear blockage. Other symptoms include nose bleeds, blood in the saliva or a lump in the neck caused by a swollen lymph node.
Add to that the difficulty in inspecting the nasopharynx - the upper part of the throat behind the nose - and diagnosis is often delayed. Hence, the tumours are often detected late, when the disease is already quite advanced.
Cho (name changed for patient confidentiality reasons) was lucky that he was diagnosed before the cancer had spread to other parts of his body, which nasopharyngeal carcinomas are prone to do.