Interleukin 1 receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1) is a serine/threonine-protein kinase that mediates IL1–TLR–NF-κB signaling pathway; and IRAK1–S100A9 axis plays a critical role in the paclitaxel resistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, while S100A9 ablation could increase the sensitivity of cells to paclitaxel, and the addition of recombinant S100A9 could rescue the resistance to paclitaxel after S100A9 knockdown (Liu et al., 2021). This evidence concerns the gene IRAK1 and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.