Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has a striking geographical and ethnical distribution. It occurs with high frequency in southern China and Southeast Asia. Family clustering was also observed in NPC and a typical family with 15 NPC cases was introduced in this paper. Epidemiological and genetic studies have been carried out in the previous decades and vast information was accumulated for familiar NPC, in terms of risk factors, inheritance mode, and involvement of gene polymorphisms. The major findings in this field were summarized. Furthermore, future directions leading to understanding the genetic mechanism of the familial form of NPC was also discussed.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) occurs with high frequency in Asian populations, especially among people of Cantonese ancestry. In areas with high incidence, NPC clusters in families, which suggests that both geography and genetics may influence disease risk1-6. Although the HLA-Bw46 locus is associated with increased risk of NPC7,8, no predisposing genes have been identified so far. Here we report the results of a genome-wide search carried out in families at high risk of NPC from Guangdong Province, China. Parametric analyses provide evidence of linkage to the D4S405 marker on chromosome 4 with a logarithm of odds for linkage (Iod) score of 3.06 and a heterogeneity-adjusted Iod (hlod) score of 3.21. Fine mapping with additional markers flanking D4S405 resulted in a lod score of 3.54 and hlod score of 3.67 for the region 4p15.1-q12. Multipoint nonparametric linkage analysis gives Iod scores of 3.54 at D4S405 (P=5.4

以往研究提示，c-myc和c-erbB-2癌基因在鼻咽癌中过表达。为了阐明这两种癌基因过表达的分子机制，应用当前肿瘤研究新技术——组织微阵列，结合间期双色荧光原位杂交(FISH)和免疫组化(IHC)，对267例鼻咽癌组织、24例癌旁组织和29例鼻咽部慢性炎症组织进行了大样本研究。结果发现，号咽癌c-myc和c-erbB-2癌蛋白过表达发生率分别为48%￥～63%和20%～38%；但c-myc和c-erbB-2两个癌基因在鼻咽癌中均无扩增；8与17号着丝粒探针杂交则分别显示有43%～50%和20%～27%的鼻咽癌染色体呈现多体性。蛋白表达分析表明，c-erbB-2表达与17号染色体多体性有关（P<0.0005）。

HER2 (c-erbB-2) has been suggested to be a prognostic factor in a variety of human cancers including breast, gastric and ovarian cancers. This study is therefore designed to ide~ntify changes of HER2 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). an epithelia-derived malignancy with strong racial and geographic distribution. Interphase FISH and immunriohistochemical (IHC) staining were used to analyze the gene copy number and protein expression of HER2 in 45 cases of NPC from Guangzhou. Southern China. an area with the highest incidence of NPC in the world. Our results, however, found no significant alterations in gene copy number for HER2, although IHC staining detected expression of HER2 oncoprotein in 33% Of the 45 NPC tumors. No correlation was observed between HER2 expression and sex, age and clinical outcome of the patients. T stage, lymph node status, site and histopathological grading of-the tumors. These results cast doubt on the value of HER2 as a prognostic factor for NPC.