The low positive predictive value (PPV) of early screening of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the problems that need to be solved urgently. The combination of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation testing and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) serological testing is the key to solve this problem. This paper reviews recent advances in early screening for NPC and cfDNA methylation, with future perspectives. Pubmed was searched for the literature related to early screening of NPC and cfDNA methylation in the past 5 years. The results of these studies were summarized. Despite these efforts, the PPV is still low (10%). Previous studies have shown that cfDNA methylation analysis has good specificity and accuracy across a variety of tumors. The combination of cfDNA methylation and EBV detection helps to improve the PPV for early screening of NPC. The combination of cfDNA methylation and EBV serological testing is key to addressing the low PPV of NPC early screening.
Keywords: DNA methylation; EBV; cfDNA; early screening; nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
© 2023 The Authors. Head & Neck published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.