Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC, NPCA) is a multifactorial malignancy associated with both genetic and environmental factors. The cancer arises from the epithelium of the nasopharynx. The Epstein-Barr virus has been implicated (Tse et al., 2009). Genetic Heterogeneity of Susceptibility to Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma NPCA1 maps to chromosome 4p. NPCA2 (161550) maps to chromosome 6p21. NPCA3 (617075) is associated with variation in the MST1R gene (600168) on chromosome 3p21. Somatic mutations have been found in the TP53 gene (191170) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tumors.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPCA) is a malignant tumor that emerges from the epithelium of the nasopharynx. It has a high incidence in southern China, and evidence suggests that there may be a genetic component that underlies familial clustering. Some patients have onset before 20 years of age (summary by Dai et al., 2016) For a general phenotypic description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of susceptibility to nasopharyngeal carcinoma, see NPCA1 (607107).