Analysis of BM samples revealed a biphasic behavior of T regulatory cells, Th17 cells, CD8+ cytotoxic T cells and NK cells, as well as skewing of CD4+ and CD8+ T memory cell subset distributionss, suggesting failure of an early anti-myeloma response, which is replaced by progressive immunosuppression, and dysfunction and exhaustion of CD8+ T cell tumor cytotoxicity. The gene discussed is CD8A; the disease is plasma cell myeloma.