Familial nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is defined as NPC occurring in two or more first-degree relatives. The rate of familial NPC is likely to be about 8% in any cohort of NPC patients in a high-risk region. The risk of a first-degree relative of an NPC patient being diagnosed with NPC is 2–15 times that of the general population in the endemic regions. Genetic factors are most likely the major causal associations for familial NPC, though environmental factors cannot be excluded. The current evidence shows that familial NPC is not a clinical syndrome. Treatment outcomes of familial NPC patients are not established and hence the protocols used for managing these patients should not be different from the sporadic NPC patients. Screening the first-degree relatives of NPC patients may increase the proportion of early NPC in a high-risk population.
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Loh, K.S. (2010). Familial Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. In: Lu, J.J., Cooper, J.S., Lee, A.W.M. (eds) Nasopharyngeal Cancer. Medical Radiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92810-2_6
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