REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1609754
This article is part of the Research TopicToward the Future Management of Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic LeukemiaView all 9 articles
Neutrophils unveiled in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States
- 2Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, United States
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This review explores neutrophils’ roles in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), highlighting their functions within the immune system. While neutrophils are known for fighting infections, their altered behavior in CLL significantly impacts disease progression. This review notes the reduced phagocytic abilities of neutrophils and the increased formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in patients with CLL. It also examines the effects of CLL treatments, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapies, on neutrophils’ count and function, stressing the need for improved strategies to manage therapy-induced immune dysfunction. This review also provides detailed information about the interactions between neutrophils and other immune elements in CLL microenvironment, providing insights for developing therapeutic approaches that can restore immune function and improve patients’ quality of life.
Keywords: Neutrophils, NETs, CLL, immune dysfunction, Infection, disease progression
Received: 10 Apr 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 McManus, Khare and Bertilaccio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Maria Teresa Sabrina Bertilaccio, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States
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