Transgenomic's Wave system used for early detection of drug resistance mutations in chronic myeloid leukemia study in Journal of Clinical Oncology Highlights Results
Transgenomic reports the publication of a study demonstrating the ability of its Wave System to enable detection of mutations in the BCR-ABL gene that are associated with development of resistance to imatinib therapy in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients.
Importantly, in three out of nineteen patients harboring BCR-ABL mutations, the mutations were detectable 1-2 months from the onset of therapy only by denaturing HPLC performed with the Wave system, but were not detectable by direct DNA sequencing.
Since all but four patients with mutations had sustained hematologic responses to imatinib at the time of mutation detection, early mutation screening may serve to identify patients at risk of developing drug resistance.
Giovanni Martinelli (Institute of Hematology and Medical Oncology, University of Bologna, Italy) and colleagues described this work in an article entitled 'ABL mutations in late chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia patients with up-front cytogenetic resistance to Imatinib are associated with a greater likelihood of progression to blast crisis and shorter survival: A study by the Gimema working party on chronic myeloid leukemia', by Soverini et al, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on 20 June 2005.
Dr Martinelli commented on the significance of this body of work and the role of the Wave System.
"As many as 40% of late chronic phase patients fail to reach a major cytogenetic response while receiving Imatinib therapy".
"Our results suggest that within the non-responder population, the presence of BCR-ABL mutations may identify a subset of patients with a particularly poor prognosis".
"In addition, our data suggest that denaturing HPLC performed on the Wave System offers a valuable approach for the early detection of mutations likely to lead to imatinib resistance." Collin D'Silva, Transgenomic's CEO, said: "The important work by Dr Martinelli's group provides an excellent example of efforts to relate molecular mechanisms of disease to patient outcomes".
"We believe our WAVE System addresses an increasing need for early detection of molecular events that predict clinical outcomes to facilitate patient-specific disease management".
"The work of Dr Martinelli's group represents a significant step towards realizing this goal."
