Early studies identified the losses of chromosomes 3p and 9p as early events in the development of NPC.7, 8 Chromosome 3p21.3 was the first region to be functionally identified as a tumor suppressor gene (TSG) cluster,9 and 9p deletion results in the loss of the genes encoding the tumor‐suppressive cyclin‐dependent kinase inhibitor INK4 family members, p16 (CDKN2A) and p15 (CDKN2B). Here, CDKN2A is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.