Early CD49d downmodulation in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients treated front-line with ibrutinib plus rituximab predicts long-term response.

Indeed, CLL patients with a CD49d bimodal expression experience a clinical behavior similar to that of CD49d SP + sp CLL and show an overall increase of the CD49d SP + sp subpopulation under multiple lines of therapy, consistent with its selection in the microenvironmental niche. CD49d has emerged as one of the strongest negative prognosticators in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), marking a subset of ~40% of patients characterized by an aggressive and accelerated clinical course [[1]]. (B) CD49d modulation on D14 in CLL samples with or without stable CLLlow counts over time (i.e. CLL <0.1 × 103/ l for all time points of MRD analysis evaluated, CLLlown = 12, 8/12 CD49d+ samples vs. [Extracted from the article]