To explore other factors that may induce NK cell exhaustion in NK-NPC, we performed a global intercellular communication assay of NK-NPC single cell profiles (Fig. 4A), where an LGALS9-CD44 and LGALS9-CD45 intercellular interaction mode existed between NK cells and multiple cell types, including epithelial cells, T cells, B cells and myeloid cells. This evidence concerns the gene CD44 and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.