CLL Mutation Detection and Monitoring from Blood using AC Electrokinetics

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common human adult leukemia in the Western world. Because CLL is not considered curable with standard therapy, treatment generally is initiated when the patient develops signs of symptoms of aggressive disease. However, the clinical course of patients is heterogeneous. Some patients progress relatively rapidly, require early therapy, and succumb to the disease within a few years of diagnosis. On the other hand, most patientsinitially have an indolent course and do not require therapy for long periods after diagnosis; however a large proportion of such patients ultimately progress to a more advanced clinical stage and generally die from the disease. The mutually exclusive presence of alterations of the p53, SF3B1, Notch1 genes can occur in ~5-20% of CLL patients at diagnosis and these genes have individually shown to have significant correlations with poor prognosis and treatment resistance by several investigators. Mutations