Persistent eosinophilia in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma and TP53 deletion is a potential predictor of variant Richter’s transformation

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) progression to diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (Richter’s syndrome) is noted in approximately 3 - 16% of the patients. However, transformation to classical Hodgkin lymphoma occurs in only 0.5% of the patients and has no clinically well-defined predictors. We report three patients with CLL/SLL and TP53 deletion in whom persistent eosinophilia preceded the Hodgkin lymphoma transformation