Over the past decade, next-generation sequencing (NGS) studies have led to the discovery of recurrently mutated genes in CLL, such as NOTCH1, SF3B1, BIRC3, XPO1, POT1, NFKBIE and EGR2, that are associated with poor clinical outcome [13–21]. Here, BIRC3 is linked to B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.