Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA gives an overview of her talk on targeted therapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) held at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. Dr Brown adresses unanswered questions such as how to salvage patients who relapse on the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib and how to optimize the management of toxicities some patients experience. Dr Brown further discusses the issues around the trial of the PI-3 kinase inhibitor idelalisib, in particular infections in the setting of neutropenia.