The genes associated with IRF4 (WT) and IRF4 (K59R) expression included CASP1, CHST2, CLEC12A, CTLA4, FCGR2B, IFI204, IL2RA, IL2RB, KITLG, LAMB2, LY86, MAF, SMAD3, TGFB3, THSD1, TIGIT, TOX2, and TLR2. Many of these genes, such as CTLA4 and TOX2, are also up-regulated in ATLL samples (Additional file 1: Figure S3). Here, CTLA4 is linked to adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.