However, there were several reports on this issue26, 30, and, the distribution of CD4/CD8 in natural T cells (CD3+CD56+) in adjacent non-cancerous tissues of HCC patients in our study (n = 9, 8.75 ± 2085 vs 56.70 ± 4.71) was very close to the reported results. Here, CD8A is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.