Patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) don’t respond well to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. In this interview, Chris Fegan, MB, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, from Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, discusses a study carried out on T-cell telomeres from CLL patients, in which it was observed that these telomeres shorten even more rapidly than those in CLL cells. This interview was recorded at the British Society for Hematology (BSH) 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting, Liverpool, UK