Recently, we have shown that PBOX-15 induces apoptosis in ex vivo B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) cells harbouring poor prognostic indicators and fludarabine resistance-associated p53 deletions (McElligott et al, 2009), and in imatinib-resistant chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) cells (Bright et al, 2010). Here, TP53 is linked to chronic myelogenous leukemia, BCR-ABL1 positive.