A higher proportion of patients with undifferentiated (25.3%) than differentiated types (21.7%) (P ═ 0.045) had CD8+ T cells co-expressing TIM-3 and TIGIT, suggesting a correlation between increased TIM-3/TIGIT co-expression and immunosuppressive environment in NPC. Here, HAVCR2 is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.