Lin GW, Xu C, Chen K, et al. - As the pathogenesis of extranodal natural killer T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL; nasal type) involves Epstein-Barr virus infection, and HLA-DPB1 variants are risk factors for the disease, researchers here sought additional novel genetic variants influencing the risk of NKTCL. They assessed multiple populations from east Asia in this genome-wide association study of NKTCL. The discovery cohort comprised 700 cases with NKTCL and 7,752 controls without NKTCL of Han Chinese ancestry from 19 centres in southern, central, and northern regions of China; four independent replication samples comprised 717 cases and 12,650 controls. Performing meta-analysis of all samples (a total of 1,417 cases and 20 402 controls), they recognized two novel loci that were significantly associated with NKTCL: IL18RAP on 2q12.1 and HLA-DRB1 on 6p21.3. Findings revealed the importance of inflammation and immune regulation through the IL18–IL18RAP axis and antigen presentation involving HLA-DRB1 in the development of NKTCL. This novel information obtained regarding NKTCL development might aid in identifying potential therapeutic targets. These results in combination with additional genetic and other risk factors may aid in stratifying people at high risk of NKTCL for targeted prevention.