( Positive interim results prompt request...)Pixantrone Combination Therapy for First-line Treatment of,Aggressive Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Results in Reduction in Severe,Toxicities Including Heart Damage When Compared to,Doxorubicin-based Therapy,Health

SEATTLE, July 11, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) announced today that interim results of its phase II/III trial comparing CPOP-R, in which pixantrone is substituted for doxorubicin in standard CHOP-R first-line treatment of patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), resulted in essentially all patients on both arms achieving a major objective anti-tumor response (complete response or partial response). The preliminary results showed that patients who received pixantrone had a reduction in severe (grade 3/4) side effects when compared to patients treated with standard doxorubicin-based therapy. The Company intends to report data from this trial, known as RAPID, at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in December.

Despite pixantrone patients receiving more treatment cycles, a three-fold reduction in the incidence of severe heart damage (LVEF decline >15 percent) was seen as well as clinically significant reductions in infections and thrombocytopenia. In addition a significant reduction in febrile neutropenia was also observed. Febrile neutropenia is a life-threatening complication of chemotherapy which often requires hospitalization and antibiotic therapy and may lead to death from infection while the patient's infection-fighting white blood cells are low due to neutropenia. The RAPID study is expected to complete enrollment in 2008.

"We are excited by these results demonstrating that pixantrone is living up to the promise of preventing the severe cardiac damage that accompanies the use of standard doxorubicin treatment while retaining the potent anti-lymphoma activity of this class of drug," said James A. Bianco, M.D., President and CEO of CTI. "Pending results from this and other studies, these findings could have major implications for treating patients with breast cancer, lym
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