Translational research in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is well known to be a viral driven malignancy. Despite high loco-regional control rate with modern radiotherapy, distant metastasis remains as a major threat to the patients highlighting the importance of effective systemic therapy. Recent advances in the understanding of tumor biology, host cell-virus interaction and genetics have paved new ways for targeted therapies. This review summarizes the recent advances into our knowledge and understanding of NPC and highlights potential novel therapeutic strategies that may prove useful to treat this disease.