While resting lymphocytes, monocytes, and NK cells constitutively express the β‐ and γ‐subunits, the α ‐subunit of IL‐2R (IL‐2Rα) is constitutively expressed only on the cell surface of lymphoid neoplastic cells and transiently induced on the activated normal lymphocytes.25 Although the precise mechanism of sIL‐2R shedding is not clear, it has been shown that the release of sIL‐2R is proportional to its cell surface expression, suggesting that serum levels of sIL‐2R represent the numbers of IL‐2R α‐expressing lymphoma cells and activated lymphocytes.26 This evidence concerns the gene IL2RA and lymphoma.