The incidence and mortality of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in China are both higher than the world level. It is particularly important to improve the early diagnosis level and to monitor the recurrence and metastasis for improving the 5-year survival rate of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. As a new serological marker, circulating tumor cell (CTC) has the advantages of convenient sampling, less trauma and repeatable monitoring. Compared with imaging, it can detect micrometastases earlier and has no radiation damage. CTC detection has a wide application prospect, and has been used in many clinical studies in lung cancer, breast cancer, rectal cancer and other tumors. In recent years, there have been some studies on the application of CTC in the early diagnosis, efficacy monitoring and prognosis evaluation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and its correlation with serum EBV-DNA. This paper will review the research progress of CTC in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.