However, consistent with the tumor load patterns, DEN-treated WT mice showed a slight but insignificant reduction in the population of NK cells compared with vehicle-treated WT mice (p = 0.1195), and DEN-treated KO mice and DEN/TSAHC-treated WT mice exhibited slight but statistically insignificant recoveries in the splenic NK cell population (p = 0.1510 or 0.1528, respectively), suggesting a possible involvement (though insignificant presumably due to smaller sample numbers) of NK cells in response to TM4SF5 blockade with TSAHC during DEN-induced carcinogenesis (Fig. 4B, right). This evidence concerns the gene TM4SF5 and neoplasm.