Ever wondered how our immune system creates unique antibodies by generating them out of a possible trillion different choices, yet about a third of CLL patients have B Cell Receptors (BCR's) that look functionally identical and can be divided into stereotypes?
Dr Sharman has written a very interesting post (well to me at least) on this and why knowing about these stereotypes can have a big impact on prognosis. Some subgroups look like they have been generated in response to a viral infection with either CMV or EBV or some types of yeast - so perhaps we will find in future which genome specifics might predispose us to developing CLL if we are exposed to specific antigens.
Problem is - there's no test yet for these stereotype subgroups - not even in the USA!
cll-nhl.com/2013/05/stereot...
Neil