Digging into the HLA pockets: A new association with acute leukaemias

Acute leukaemias represent a highly heterogeneous group of clonal proliferations of myeloid or lymphoid blasts. In the last decade, the contribution of immunogenetics to cancer biology has elicited a renewed interest in the structures of immune adaptive responses, due to the growing body of evidence concerning their involvement into disease pathogenesis and treatment. The report by Boukouaci and colleagues suggests new associations between patterns of distribution of specific human leukocyte antigen motifs and leukaemogenesis. Commentary on Boukouaci Wahid et al. Comparative analysis of the variability of the HLA peptide-binding pockets in patients with acute leukemias" Br J Haematol 2023;200:203-215.