Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a kind of head and neck malignant tumor closely related to Epstein-Barr virus infection, and its pathogenesis has not been fully elucidated. Radiotherapy is the main treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, while radio-resistance is easy to make tumor recurrence or metastasis and leads to radiotherapy failure. Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene is mainly activated when DNA double-strand breaks, and can participate in the regulation of DNA damage repair, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Studies have shown that ATM plays different roles depending on the stages of the development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and the process of therapeutic intervention, also plays an important role in the radio-resistance of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In recent years, reducing radio-resistance by inhibiting ATM activity has become a research hotspot. This paper reviews the role and research progress of ATM-related signaling pathways in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, so as to provides reference for the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.