CD8A and cancer: Promising cancer immunotherapies that aim to boost CD8 T cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity include DC cancer vaccines, adaptive cell transfer (ACT) of tumor-reactive T cells, either native (CTL clones or Tumor infiltrated lymphocytes–TIL) or engineered to express tumor antigen-specific TCR or chimeric antigen receptors (CAR), and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) such as anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, and anti-CTLA-4 (2).