CD8A and cancer: CD8+ CTL-induced continuous inflammation is sufficient to trigger the process of hepatocarcinogenesis in the absence of preexisting viral transactivation or genetic changes in chronic HBV infection.[10, 12, 13] During the process of cancer development, molecular events may accumulate in intracellular and extracellular microenvironments to establish the pathological signatures of tumor tissues distinct from non-cancer conditions.