The recent finding that high plasma concentrations of IgA to HIV-1 Env inhibit protective responses mediated by IgG is supportive of an inhibitory role played by plasma IgA (Haynes et al, 2012), a phenomenon that has been observed with other pathogens (Griffiss & Goroff, 1983; Shi et al, 2011), in the regulation of autoantibodies (Quan et al, 1998), and in cancer (Mathew et al, 1981) or idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) (Arnason et al, 2012). This evidence concerns the gene CD79A and cancer.