As a result, most patients exhibited a significantly lower level of LPLUNC1 and PHB1 compared with the normal control tissues (Fig. 1a, b), as well a positive correlation between LPLUNC1 and PHB1 expression in NPC and normal samples analysed by Pearson Linear Regression (Fig. 1c, P < 0.0001). Here, PHB1 is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.