Therefore, we investigated whether FBS also induces pY772-EphA2 in the NPC cells and observed that FBS induced the phosphorylation of EphA2 at Y772 and its downstream Shp2 and Erk-1/2 in the 5-8F and CNE2 NPC cells (Supplementary Fig. 2), indicating that growth factors in the serum induces ligand-independent pY772-EphA2 in the NPC cells, which is consistent with FBS inducing pS897-EphA2. This evidence concerns the gene EPHA2 and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.