The shedding of soluble LFA-3, a phospholipase by-product of cell surface LFA-3 [44], into both culture medium and human sera, has been previously reported in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, spondylarthropathies, liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinomas, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [38, 47], so our report now adds CLL to this list. This evidence concerns the gene CD58 and hepatocellular carcinoma.