Consistently, through a cell-to-cell-mediated mechanism, leukemic cells induce in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells purified from CLL patients several changes in the expression of genes involved in CD4+ T-cell differentiation, cytoskeleton formation, and vesicle trafficking, and in CD8+ T-cell cytotoxicity (98). Here, CD8A is linked to B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.