Table 1. Gradual downregulation of CTGF protein in NPC and atypical hyperplasia samples compared with squamous and normal nasopharynx epithelium tissues.

Group	Protein expression (n)			P-value
	Total	Low	High	S/N/A/C	S/N	A/N	C/N	A/C	S/C
Squamous epithelium	21	3	18
Normal epithelium	49	2	47
Atypical hyperplasia	37	9	28
Cancer	213	124	89	0.000a	0.155b	0.025b	0.000b	0.000b	0.000b

Abbreviations: A, atypical; C, cancer; N, normal; n, patient case; S, squamous.

^aKruskal Wallis test

^bχ² test