Two specific inhibitors, navitoclax (ABT-263), which inhibits BCL-2, BCL-XL and BCL-w, and venetoclax (ABT-199), which inhibits BCL-2, have recently entered clinical trials (Tse et al, 2008; Souers et al, 2013) and show promise in haematological malignancies, such as chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) (Roberts et al, 2015). The gene discussed is BCL2; the disease is B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.