Genetic markers of chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a retrospective study of 312 patients from a reference center in Lebanon.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a highly heterogenous hemopathy. Genetic stratification of CLL patients has important prognostic and therapeutic values - mainly immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region gene () mutational status and the presence of cytogenetic abnormalities. The genetics of CLL in Lebanon is scarcely described in the literature. In this work, we studied the genetic biomarkers of 312 Lebanese CLL patients. Prominent IGHV genes were , and ; and CLL #1 and #5 presented major subsets. Some similarities as well as major differences were highlighted when comparing our data with previously published data. The distribution of alleles in our series differed from previously described distributions, suggesting involvement of antigenic selection and regional variables in CLL pathogenesis.