CD8A and cancer: Notably, the translational relevance is supported by: [1] the established clinical use of vaccinia virus as a leading oncolytic agent; [2] the mature development pipeline of anti-TIM-3 antibodies in multiple cancer indications; [3] demonstrated therapeutic efficacy of this combination strategy across preclinical murine and patient-derived xenograft models; and [4] functional conservation of DCs/CD8+ T cells regulatory pathways between murine systems and human hematopoietic lineages.