The EB murine model of B-ALL recapitulates spontaneous generation of pre-B-cell tumors with molecular defects similar to those seen in leukemia patients with common transcription factor haploinsufficiencies, deletions or translocations, and does not depend on expression of oncogenic drivers such as c-myc and constitutively active Stat5 which are not found in most B-ALL patients. Here, MYC is linked to precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.