EGF and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: We previously found that TGFα and other epidermal growth factor (EGFR) ligands (including HB-EGF and EPR) were consistently upregulated in the transgenic tissue from the earliest stages, indicating that induction of these ligands result directly from LMP1 expression [20,21], furthermore increased serum TGFα has been correlated with poor prognosis in NPC patients [34].