Furthermore, Liu et al. [194] showed that in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), active STAT3 and RelA sustain Mcl-1/Bcl-xL anti-apoptotic protein expression and autocrine IL-6 production, rendering CLL cells resistant to conventional chemotherapy and apoptosis in vitro. The gene discussed is BCL2L1; the disease is B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.