CD8A and neoplasm: To confirm that these tumor-specific activation gene sets were associated with TCR-MHC-mediated tumor-recognition, and not bystander TIL activation, we verified that the same genes were highly upregulated in two pure tumor-antigen-specific CD8+ TILs co-cultured with autologous TCLs (>95% specificity for either AIM-2 or MART-1 antigens).