As early as the 1980s and 1990s, researchers sequentially observed enriched expression of IL-1α and IL-1β within NPC tissues, particularly in EBV-positive epithelial cells as well as infiltrating CD4+ T cells, and proposed the hypothesis that they may serve as factors driving lymphocytic infiltration and/or tumor progression during the development of NPC (62, 63). This evidence concerns the gene CD4 and neoplasm.