Jan Burger, MD, PhD from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, talks about recognising the role of the microenvironment in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (iwCLL) 2017 in New York, NY. Dr Burger discusses how the microenvironment supports tumour cells. Once tumour cells are removed from their environment or become ‘homeless’, they undergo apoptosis. Thus, novel agents are targeted at disrupting the microenvironment and the network of tumour cells such that they become displaced into the systemic circulation, and cease to have malignant potential.