According to the findings of Maryland’s National Cancer Institute, the excessive presence of certain ‘B cells’, called monoclonal B cells, in the blood could well be an early warning sign of the most commonly-occurring leukemia, CLL - chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Lead researcher Ola Landgren and colleagues have discovered that the presence of “too many” B cells helps in identifying CLL, a type of blood cancer. On examining the frozen blood samples from 45 people who later developed CLL, the researchers noticed the circulation of antibody-producing B cells in the 44 of the samples.

In their report for The New England Journal of Medicine, Landgren and colleagues said: “We found that the vast majority of patients with CLL have a precursor state from 6 months to 6 years before the development of clinically recognized leukemia.”

However, the researchers clarified that the findings do not imply that older people need to be regularly screened for B-cell clones. Nearly 5 percent of people aged 50 and above have these cells in their blood, but only a chance 1 in 100 may be diagnosed of CLL that needs to be treated.

Saying that the latest findings can potentially lead to better ways of treating and preventing CLL, Landgren termed the study a “timely addition” towards the end of “detection, assessment, treatment, and prevention of B-cell lymphoid cancers.” (Harkiran contributed to this report)