In order to further research whether the inhibitory effect of IL-17A on cell invasion and MMP-2/9 expression and EMT was correlated with activation of the p38 signaling pathway, NPC cells were pretreated with a p38 inhibitor (SB203580, 20 μM) for 30 min and then incubated in the presence or absence of IL-17A (50 ng/ml) for 24 h. Here, MMP2 is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.