Are there precursor conditions for chronic lymphocytic leukemia? If so, what are they?

So we don't really have any obvious precursors that will develop the disease. So a disease that seems to be, something that neither something that you could have done to prevent it or something that you did caused it. But we don't have any obvious precursors to the disease. There are patients who are picked up with lymphocyte doses who do not meet criteria for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This is what we call monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis. These patients actually have a normal white count, but when you do more sophisticated tests, you see the presence of these abnormal cells, these lymphocytes, and it is thought to be a precursor condition to chronic lymphocytic leukemia. It is not thought to be at this time in need of treatment. And these patients have only a 1% chance per year of progressing to chronic lymphocytic leukemia.