{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]],"date-time":"2026-10-06T17:52:08Z","timestamp":1791309128647,"version":"4.3.1"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"American Society of Hematology","content-domain":{"domain":["ashpublications.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Telomere length is a prognostic factor in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), yet its relevance under targeted therapies remains unclear. Here, we analyzed telomere length using qPCR in 917 samples from treatment-na\u00efve CLL patients without TP53 aberrations enrolled in the GAIA\/CLL13 trial comparing venetoclax-based combinations with rituximab (RV), obinutuzumab (GV), or obinutuzumab plus ibrutinib (GIV) versus chemoimmunotherapy (CIT). For CLL with TP53 aberrations, samples from 41 treatment-na\u00efve patients receiving GIV in the CLL2-GIVe trial were analyzed. The median telomere lengths in GAIA\/CLL13 and CLL2-GIVe were 4.0 kb (1.2-15.2) and 2.8 kb (1.4-14.0), respectively. A prognostic cutoff of 4.17 kb, based on GAIA\/CLL13, was used for dichotomization into short and long telomeres. Within GAIA\/CLL13, short telomeres significantly correlated with adverse clinical features including advanced Binet stage, high ECOG, high serum \u00df2-microglobulin and thymidine kinase levels, high lymphocyte count and large lymph nodes (all P&amp;lt;0.01). Among genetic features, short telomeres significantly associated with unmutated IGHV, del(11q), mutations in NOTCH1, SF3B1, XPO1, RPS15, EGR2 and NFKBIE, and karyotypic complexity (all P&amp;lt;0.01). Short telomeres were associated with shorter progression-free survival (PFS) within CIT, RV, GV, GIV in GAIA\/CLL13 (all P&amp;lt;0.01) and in CLL2-GIVe (dichotomized by median; P=0.04), and impacted overall survival only in the CIT arm (P=0.024). Multivariable analysis suggested telomere length as an independent prognostic factor for PFS in the overall GAIA\/CLL13 cohort. These findings propose telomere length as a prognostic marker for PFS in CLL patients receiving venetoclax-based first-line therapy and could be of relevance for risk stratification in the modern treatment era. NCT02950051<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1182\/blood.2025032302","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]],"date-time":"2026-10-06T17:12:18Z","timestamp":1791306738000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1182\/blood.2019cm0000","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Telomere length in chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with venetoclax-based regimen in GAIA\/CLL13 and CLL2-GIVe trials"],"prefix":"10.1182","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6188-1652","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Billy Michael Chelliah","family":"Jebaraj","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eugen","family":"Tausch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ulm University, Ulm, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5473-4398","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Deyan Yordanov","family":"Yosifov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ulm University Hospital, Ulm, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christof","family":"Schneider","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ulm University, Ulm, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6593-0140","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Moritz","family":"F\u00fcrstenau","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Duesseldorf; German CLL Study Group, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, Cologne, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Can","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8848-6655","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sandra","family":"Robrecht","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University Hospital of Cologne, K\u00f6ln, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Caspar","family":"da Cunha-Bang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2139-3547","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mark-David","family":"Levin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Albert Schweitzer hospital, Dordrecht, the Netherlands., Dordrecht, Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6729-7708","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Philipp B.","family":"Staber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Saarland University Medical School, Homburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Henriette","family":"Huber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"St\u00e4dtisches Klinikum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tamar","family":"Tadmor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Patrick","family":"Thornton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beaumont\/RCSI \/Cancer Trials Ireland, Dublin, Ireland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael","family":"Gregor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Luzerner Kantonsspital, Luzern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anna-Maria","family":"Fink","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kirsten","family":"Fischer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Karl-Anton","family":"Kreuzer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department I of Internal Medicine and Center of Integrated Oncology Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, D\u00fcsseldorf, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital of Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthias","family":"Ritgen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine II, University of Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7425-4455","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael J","family":"Hallek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3190-1891","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arnon P","family":"Kater","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam, Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9880-5242","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carsten Utoft","family":"Niemann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen \u00d8, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Barbara F.","family":"Eichhorst","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universityhospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stephan","family":"Stilgenbauer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ulm University, Ulm, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"234","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]]},"container-title":["Blood Journal"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/ashpublications.org\/blood\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1182\/blood.2025032302\/2593995\/blood.2025032302.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/ashpublications.org\/blood\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1182\/blood.2025032302\/2593995\/blood.2025032302.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]],"date-time":"2026-10-06T17:12:18Z","timestamp":1791306738000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/ashpublications.org\/blood\/article\/doi\/10.1182\/blood.2025032302\/571393\/Telomere-length-in-chronic-lymphocytic-leukemia"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1182\/blood.2025032302","relation":{},"ISSN":["0006-4971","1528-0020"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0006-4971","type":"print"},{"value":"1528-0020","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]]},"article-number":"blood.2025032302"}}