These observations coupled with reports that the functional homologues of EBNA1 (LANA and ORF73, encoded by KSHV and MuHV-4 respectively) inhibit NF-κB activity [18,19] prompted us to investigate whether EBNA1 also influences NF-κB activity in carcinoma cells and if this may contribute to the development of EBV-associated epithelial cell tumours such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Here, NFKB1 is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.