A phase II trial of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib in >400 patients with accelerated-phase chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), chronic-phase CML and Philadelphia-chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) has shown significant results. In patients with chronic-phase CML, >50% experienced a major cytogenetic response and 46% experienced a complete cytogenetic response. In patients with ALL, 41% had a major haematological response and 47% had a major cytogenetic response. These results come as welcome news for these heavily pretreated patients with resistance or unacceptable adverse responses to dasatinib or nilotinib.