CRIPTO and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: As a potential example of paracrine function, CRIPTO was shown to be elevated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma with metastasis and its expression was positively correlated with latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), which acts as a CD40 functional homolog to prevent apoptosis of infected B-lymphocytes, potentially indicating a role of CRIPTO in the modulation of immune response [185].