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ORPHA:150

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: NCP · Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx

Publications

51,137

Trials

655

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,188

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

3/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a tumor arising from the epithelial cells that cover the surface and line the nasopharynx.

How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Additional Mondo synonyms (6)

NPC · carcinoma of nasopharynx · carcinoma of the nasopharynx · nasopharyngeal carcinoma · nasopharynx carcinoma · squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx

Research stages

Trial readiness signals

Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”

3/6 stages with a signal

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    51,137 matched papers (32,686 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot found

    No HPO disease–phenotype associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  4. Animal modelNot found

    No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  5. Orphan designationPresent

    4 FDA · 1 EMA designations (4 FDA orphan-indication approvals) — e.g. Penpulimab Source

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    655 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (196 recruiting in sample)

Biology

Genes and phenotypes

Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.

Do we know what causes it?

Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.

No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

None returned for this Mondo ID. That often means “not linked under this ID,” not “no clinical features.”

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.

Monarch fetch 2026-07-29

Therapies

Designations, candidates, and chemicals

FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.

Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)

5

Designations · 4 with FDA orphan-indication approval

  • FDA PenpulimabNasopharyngeal carcinoma · 2021-02-23 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA ToripalimabNasopharyngeal carcinoma · 2020-05-18 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA (s)-perillyl alcohol temozolomide carbamateNasopharyngeal carcinoma · 2017-07-27 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA pembrolizumabNasopharyngeal carcinoma · 2016-10-11 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • EMA azacitidineTreatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma · 11/11/2015 · WithdrawnEMA designation

Sources: FDA OOPD · EMA orphan designations

Open Targets candidates

145

Drugs / clinical candidates · MONDO_0015459

CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)

9 associated chemicals · 417 pathways. Therapeutic evidence is listed first when present — not a treatment recommendation.

  • Arsenic Trioxide · therapeutic
  • Cisplatin · therapeutic
  • Flavones · therapeutic
  • Fluorouracil · therapeutic
  • Resveratrol · therapeutic
  • YW3-56 · therapeutic
  • 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-1,3-acetate · marker/mechanism
  • Butyrates · marker/mechanism
  • Methylnitronitrosoguanidine · marker/mechanism

Pathways: Inositol phosphate metabolism; EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance; Endocrine resistance; Platinum drug resistance; Nucleotide excision repair; Fanconi anemia pathway; MAPK signaling pathway; ErbB signaling pathway

MyDisease.info · MONDO:0015459

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

51,137

51,137 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.

51,137 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).

32,686 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 51,137 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,188

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.

  1. 01
    Li Y17 papers · 2026

    State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnosis and Therapy, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Zhang Y14 papers · 2026

    Department of Radiation Oncology, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnosis and Therapy, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Liu Y11 papers · 2026

    School of Information and Management, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Li Z9 papers · 2026

    Department of Oncology, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital·Qionglai Medical Center Hospital, No. 172 Xinglin Road, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611530, People's Republic of China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Liu X9 papers · 2026

    Department of Radiation Oncology, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnosis and Therapy, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China. liuxu@sysucc.org.cn.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Liu Z9 papers · 2026

    Department of Biostatistics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. zl2509@cumc.columbia.edu.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Zhang J9 papers · 2026

    Department of Oncology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. zhangjian@i.smu.edu.cn.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Chen H8 papers · 2026

    Department of Radiation Oncology, Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital, Nanning 530021, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Huang X8 papers · 2026

    The MOE Basic Research and Innovation Center for the Targeted Therapeutics of Solid Tumors, Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Bioengineering Drugs, Institute of Translational Medicine, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, PR China. huangxuan@ncu.edu.cn.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Wang J8 papers · 2026

    Clinical Oncology School of Fujian Medical University, Fujian Cancer Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian, China. watwell@126.com.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

655

interventional trials for this specific condition

655 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 196 currently recruiting in our sample.

Data as of 11 September 2026

655 interventional trials — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 99.8th percentile).

low confidence · 99.8th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

655 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

Observational and natural-history studies

128 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

Recruiting or not-yet-recruiting

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Other registries (secondary)

Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.

raw 33 · after dedupe 32 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 32 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-29

Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri

No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).

Uncertain / not reviewed (32)

Where to find support

Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.

Orphanet entry for Nasopharyngeal carcinoma — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.

Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.

How we counted this

Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.

("Nasopharyngeal carcinoma" OR "Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx" OR "Squamous cell carcinoma of nasopharynx" OR "carcinoma of nasopharynx" OR "carcinoma of the nasopharynx" OR "nasopharynx carcinoma")

Run this search on Europe PMC

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"Nasopharyngeal carcinoma" OR "Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx" OR "Squamous cell carcinoma of nasopharynx" OR "carcinoma of nasopharynx" OR "carcinoma of the nasopharynx" OR "nasopharynx carcinoma"

Interventional trials matched via: phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 655 interventional · 128 observational · 1 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Synonyms dropped by stoplist: NCP; NPC

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
  • 2 synonym(s) dropped by stoplist (may under-count)
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
  • Publication count (51137) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-26T12:40:14.345Z