TLR9 and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: As shown in Table 5, TLR9 mRNA expression was significantly reduced in NPC patients with advanced state of the disease (patients with larger tumor size (T4)) (p = 0.013) and advanced clinical stage (SIII-SIV) (p = 0.0374) (Table 5) compared to patients with early state of the disease (T1, T2) (SI-SII), respectively.