Commercially available, standardised, lyophilised, fixed and pre-titrated antibody panels,8,9,10,11,12,13 like the Beckman Coulter (BC) DURAClone inventory, including the identification of normal and abnormal B progenitor cells (RE ALB),14 various chronic B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders including CD5+ chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (RE CLB)15 and normal or abnormal plasma cells (RE PC) panels, offer an attractive alternative to the locally developed, in-house multicolour panels described. This evidence concerns the gene CD5 and B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.