SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION: Polymorphism of CYP2E1 induces nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) by activating pro-carcinogens including nitrosamine. Environmental factor such as salted fish, preserved food, tobacco, and alcohol consumption which contains nitrosamine, join with CYP2E1 polymorphism leads to an increase of susceptibility for NPC.OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to identify CYP2E1 polymorphism and the association with other risk factors to NPC in NPC patients.METHODS: This study was analytic research with the case–control design. The samples were taken based on non-probability consecutive sampling method. The identification of CYP2E1 polymorphism was done by the PCR-RFLP method. The association of its variable to NPC was analyzed with the Chi-square test and between polymorphism of CYP2E1 with other risk factors was analyzed with stratified analysis.RESULT: We found that there was no significant association of CYP2E1 polymorphism with NPC. However, the joint effect of CYP2E1 polymorphism with smoking was significant in NPC patients. The risk for NPC in the combination of those two was 4.0-fold.CONCLUSION: The study showed the capability of genetics and environment in the development of NPC. Further study can be done to find evidence of genetics and environmental influence in the prevention and treatment of NPC.