Lu et al. identified, in the tumor microenvironment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, nine types of inflammatory cells, including CD3-positive T lymphocytes, CD8 positive cytotoxic T lymphocytes, CD20 positive B lymphocytes, CD56 positive natural killer cells, FOXP3 positive regulatory T lymphocytes, CD1a-positive immature dendritic cells, CD83-positive mature dendritic cells, elastase-positive neutrophils and tryptase-positive mast cells. Here, NCAM1 is linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.