Attempts were made to superinfect epithelial explant cell cultures prepared from nasopharyngeal carcinomas with Epstein-Barr virus. Virus-specific markers were observed in such cultures 3 days after superinfection. In addition, expression of Epstein-Barr virus early antigens was observed in epithelial cell explant cultures treated with iododeoxyuridine. The results suggest that epithelial cells of at least certain nasopharyngeal carcinomas possess the receptor for the Epstein-Barr virus and that the latent virus genome can be induced from epithelial cells prepared from such tumors.