CD8A and cancer: In renal cell carcinoma, however, Nakano et al (2001) clearly showed that intratumoral CD8+ T cells (defined as CD8+T cells among cancer cells or those in contact with cancer cells), as well as CD8+ or CD4+ lymphocytes in other cancer locations, were positively correlated with the biological malignancy of cancer, associating lymphocyte responses with a poor prognosis.