A total of 45 patients with CLL who had available stored prediagnostic samples of cryopreserved whole blood were included in the study (Table 1). The mean age of the patients was 70 years, and 67% of the patients were men. The median time between the time at which the prediagnostic blood sample was obtained and the subsequent CLL diagnosis was approximately 3 years (range, 3 months to 77 months). Among 43 patients with available information on Rai staging of disease (ranging from 0 [low risk] to I or II [intermediate risk] to III or IV [high risk]) at the time of the diagnosis of CLL, 40 patients (93%) had stage 0 or I, 2 patients (5%) had stage II, and 1 patient (2%) had stage III disease (Table 2).
