Previous studies have shown that aberrant expression of CIP2A is associated with progressive diseases in a number of other human malignancies including breast (Come et al, 2009), tongue (Bockelman et al, 2011), lung (Dong et al, 2011; Ma et al, 2011), gastric (Li et al, 2008), head and neck cancers (Junttila et al, 2007) and chronic myeloid leukaemia (Lucas et al, 2011). This evidence concerns the gene CIP2A and chronic myelogenous leukemia, BCR-ABL1 positive.