In the current study, EpCAM expression levels were evaluated in 22 snap-frozen NPC tissues and 14 non-cancerous nasopharyngitis (NP) tissues using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and the results showed that EpCAM was significantly upregulated in tumour tissues in comparison with non-tumour tissues (P < 0.01) (Fig. 1a). The gene discussed is EPCAM; the disease is nasopharyngitis.