Unmask the genetic backbone of ibrutinib-relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia progression and Richter transformation

In the issue of Blood Adv, Kadri et al. (1) reported a cohort of nine chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) ibrutinib-relapsed patients with leukemia progression and Richter transformation. With the next-generation sequencing (NGS) and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array, 18p deletion [del(18p)], together with del(17p)/TP53 mutations was found in CLL tumor cells in five out of nine patients before ibrutinib administration.