CD8A and cancer: Among several reasons for this phenomenon, cancer develops genetic and epigenetic alterations that impair major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC class I) expression and the antigen processing machinery (APM), hampering the CD8+ T cells/T cell receptor–cancer interaction2,3; however, cancer cells modulate the immune system both at the systemic and the local level, by driving T cells’ and other immune effectors’ exhaustion and limiting their activation.