tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19490962.post5513691152099981424..comments2023-12-10T10:06:41.979+00:00Comments on mutations of mortality: CLL; Assessment of prognosisTerry Hamblinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06346629921055055879noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19490962.post-6136708764445862682008-04-03T14:32:00.000+01:002008-04-03T14:32:00.000+01:00Thank you for this.Thank you for this.justmehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00432622549940230450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19490962.post-25158732489221628262008-04-03T09:52:00.000+01:002008-04-03T09:52:00.000+01:00Yes I agree that we already have enough. Vh genes ...Yes I agree that we already have enough. Vh genes are not difficult to do now and should be routine. The steps are extract the DNA. PCR up with a standard set of primers. Send DNA to a commercial firm for sequencing - $40 tops. Apply sequence to computer program. read result. It takes much less skill than FISH and there is no reason that it should cost more than $100.<BR/><BR/>The HemeScan is a version of CGH I think. It has some advantages in picking up chromosome gain and loss, but can't do translocations. Unfortunately it finds more than FISH but no-one knows how to interpret it in a CLL context.Terry Hamblinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06346629921055055879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19490962.post-44673969506271252192008-04-03T07:53:00.000+01:002008-04-03T07:53:00.000+01:00Personally, I don't understand the continued milli...Personally, I don't understand the continued millions of dollars spent on trying to find "better" prognostic indicators. Treatment is necessary, perhaps, when the disease becomes aggressive, and lymphocyte counts double in less than one year or six months, lymph nodes enlarge, or "B" symptoms become evident.<BR/><BR/>The money spent on looking for more and more prognostic indicators would be better spent on looking for drugs to treat those who are symptomatic, not in some pointless effort to find the one-thousandth 'wonderful' prognostic indicator.<BR/><BR/>Enough! We already have mutated/unmutated status, ZAP-70, CD38, B2 microglobulin, etc., etc., etc.<BR/><BR/>Patients are dying while researchers are fiddling around with more and more prognostic indicators!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19490962.post-20149419816216269832008-04-02T21:44:00.000+01:002008-04-02T21:44:00.000+01:00I feel that new technologies like HemeScan will pr...I feel that new technologies like HemeScan will provide us with more markers in the next year or so than we will know what to do with.<BR/><BR/>The great advantage is, that unlike FISH that requires target markers, the matrix chips will be able to look at all the genes for anomalies.<BR/><BR/>My greatest hope is that researchers don't get mesmerized by separating CLL patients into ever smaller 'buckets' just because they can but rather continue to look at the bigger picture, which is a better outcome for all.<BR/><BR/>~chrisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com