Cooperating with Singapore Scientists, Academician Zeng Yixin and his research team of the SYSU Cancer Center found three new points of nasopharyngeal carcinoma susceptibility gene and confirmed the co-relationship between human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene and nasopharyngeal cancer. The research findings （http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ng.601.html）were published on (SCI IF 30.259), one of the international top academic journals, at the local time of May 30. Highlighted by the journal, this research signals a big progress in explaining the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal cancer, laying the groundwork for developing gene chip to predict the risk of nasopharyngeal cancer and increasing the chance for earlier diagnosis and treatment.

To confirm the genetic susceptibility of nasopharyngeal cancer, the scientists made a survey by group antitheses between 5000 nasopharyngeal cancer patients and 5000 healthy people in South China. They exploited the most advanced methodology and strategy to make genetic analysis on the whole genome. And they found that HLA and other three genes (TNFRSF19, MDSI-EV11 & CDKN2A/2B) are the main susceptible genes for nasopharyngeal cancer, which contributes greatly to the risk of nasopharyngeal cancer. The scientists further confirmed the significant relevance between the HLA gene and the risk of nasopharyngeal cancer. Meanwhile, they pointed out that nasopharyngeal cancer may have similar pathogenesis with leukemia as the susceptible genes are closely related to leukemia. These findings will facilitate further exploration in the phenomenon of high incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer in South China area and better explanation for the molecular mechanisms of nasopharyngeal cancer.