In contrast to the several reports supporting the role of sMICA in the NKG2D down-modulation [39], there is a recent report by Osaki et al., which showed that sMICA levels were not different between gastric cancer patients and normal controls, indicating that sMICA was not responsible for inducing the NKG2D down-modulation on CD8+ T cells from those patients. Here, CD8A is linked to gastric cancer.