The clinical impact of this immune pathway in colorectal cancer patients is emphasised by the recent observation that patients carrying the TLR4 loss-of function allele Asp299Gly exhibit reduced progression-free and overall survival in response to oxaliplatin as compared with patients carrying the normal TLR4 allele (Tesniere et al, 2009). The gene discussed is TLR4; the disease is colorectal cancer.