Drug resistance mediated by AKR1C4 demonstrates that because of the natural enzymatic role of AKR, it is likely that AKR1C4 catalyzes specific biochemical reactions and regulates tumor metabolism and oxidative stress, or uses non-metabolic routes such as gene repair and epigenetic modification to facilitate radioresistance in NPC. Here, AKR1C4 is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.