National Cancer Institute Study to Determine the Optimal Time for CLL Patients to Begin... ( Genzyme Genetics to Provide Testing f...)

National Cancer Institute Study to Determine the Optimal Time for CLL Patients to Begin Treatment

Date:12/4/2007

Genzyme Genetics to Provide Testing for Important Cancer and Leukemia Group

B Study

WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Genzyme Genetics, a business unit of Genzyme Corporation (Nasdaq: GENZ), announced today its participation in a Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. The multi-center study will include 1,700 newly diagnosed patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and is designed to test the hypothesis that early treatment of patients with certain negative risk factors leads to longer survival. Genzyme will perform the IgVH mutation analysis for the study.

"This study is critical in helping us to understand the natural history of CLL with respect to early versus delayed progression," said John Byrd, director of hematologic malignancies & co-director, Division of Hematology- Oncology, Department of Medicine, Ohio State University and a primary investigator in the study. "We chose Genzyme to perform the IgVH analysis because of its expertise in molecular testing."

IgVH is an independent prognostic marker which can be utilized to segregate patients within all stages of CLL. Studies show that CLL patients with mutations in their IgVH gene have a longer median survival (293 months) than CLL patients without these mutations (117 months). Approximately 50 to 70 percent of patients with CLL have evidence of these mutations. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recommends IgVH Mutation Analysis for patients diagnosed with CLL. The assay can be performed on either peripheral blood or bone marrow aspirate. Genzyme launched its IgVH mutation analysis test in February, 2007.

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National Cancer Institute Study to Determine the Optimal Time for CLL Patients to Begin...( Genzyme Genetics to Provide Testing f...)