In the southern-Chinese GWAS, researchers have not only associated three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the HLA region (rs2860580, rs2894207, and rs28421666) with elevated NPC risk, they have also identified three risk-associated loci–TNFRSF19 on 13q12 (rs9510787, rs1572072), MDS1-EVI1 (rs6774494) on 3q26, and CDKN2A-CDKN2B gene cluster on 9p21 (rs1412829)–outside the HLA region [14]. Here, MECOM is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.