The lack of association between BMI-1 and p16 expression has also been reported for breast cancer (Silva et al, 2006), lung cancer (Breuer et al, 2005), and Hodgkin's lymphoma (Dukers et al, 2004), whereas in oral cancer (Kang et al, 2007) and nasopharyngeal cancer (Song et al, 2006), BMI-1 has been indicated to act through p16 to regulate cellular proliferation. Here, CDKN2A is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.