Table 4.

Expression of CD3ζ in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and non-malignant nasopharyngeal (NP) tissues and its association/relationship with patient and tumour variables.

Characteristic	Normal CD3ζ	Reduced CD3ζ	P-value
Malignancy status*
Non-malignant (NP)	36	0	0·004†
Malignant (NPC)	50	13
Gender‡
Male	39	10	1·000†
Female	8	2
Age (years)‡
< 50	18	6	0·521†
≥ 50	29	6
Race‡
Chinese	22	6	1·000†
Non-Chinese	25	6
Histological type
SCC (type I)	14	0
NKC (type II)	19	4	0·034§
UC (type III)	17	9

^*Only 63 of 64 NPC and 36 of 38 NP tissues were available for analysis. The others were excluded because of poor preservation of tissue morphology after microwave-boiling treatment.

^†Fisher's exact test;

^‡four of 63 NPC cases were excluded from analysis because of the lack of data in the medical records.

^§Kruskal–Wallis test; using Fisher's exact test, type I versus type III, P = 0·016, type I versus type II, P = 0·276, and type II versus type III, P = 0·209. SCC (type I), squamous cell carcinoma; NKC (type II): non-keratinizing carcinoma; UC (type III): undifferentiated carcinoma.