Immunoglobulin heavy variable somatic hyper mutation status in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: on the threshold of a new era?

Since the introduction of the IGHV gene somatic hypermutation (SHM) status as prognostic marker in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) patients in the two 1999 landmark publications from the Stevenson and Chiorazzi groups (Damle et al., 1999; Hamblin et al., 1999), its value has been consistently confirmed in virtually all CLL cohorts analysed thus far. To distinguish good from poor prognostic CLL subgroups, a threshold of 98% identity to the...