Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a commonly encountered malignancy in endemic regions of the world namely South
East Asia, China and Hong Kong. In Malaysia, the ethnic Chinese population is particularly at risk due to genetic
susceptibilities and environmental exposure to carcinogenic agents. We herein report a case of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in a middle-aged man of Malay ethnicity who presented with nasal blockage and neck nodes. The biopsy of
the nasopharyngeal mass came back as papillary variant of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The commonly reported histopathological types are the keratinizing and non-keratinizing types, and rarely the basaloid type. In this case report,
we aim to highlight one of the rare variants of the non-keratinizing nasopharyngeal carcinoma. When diagnosing the
non-keratinizing type, appreciation of the different morphological variants is crucial not only to help aid in procuring
an acurrate histopathologic diagnosis, but also to help in subsequent treatment plan.