During our studies on the IRF family of transcription factors in the context of regulation of PRR signaling and oncogenesis, we observed that mice genetically deficient for IRF5 (IRF5-deficient mice) show extensive lung metastasis of the B16F1 melanoma cells (hereafter referred to as B16 cells), a consequence reported to be controlled by NK cells. Here, IRF5 is linked to melanoma.