On Sunday, scientists said that faults in three genes might help clarify why parts of southern China have extremely high rates of a form of nose-and-throat cancer.

Specialists from China, Singapore and the United States probed through a genetic data of about 10,000 people of southern Chinese lineage.

Half of the participants had been detected with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a cancer that appears in the inside layer of the upper throat lying behind the nose. The other half was otherwise in a good form.

According to the research published in the journal Nature Genetics, what was revealed in the cancer group were tattletale variants in three genes.

The three, dubbed TNFRSF19, MDSIEVI1 and CDKN2A/2B, have been earlier related with leukemia.

Another indicator in the cancer victims was a difference in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene that has formerly been identified in this ailment.

The study says that the results are vital, since they could throw some light on the molecular paths of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its extensive occurrence in southern China, particularly Guangdong region.

In this area, the cancer prevails in around 25 cases per 100,000 people, which is 25 times greater than the remaining of the globe. Therefore, nasopharyngeal carcinoma is at times called the "Cantonese cancer".