SAN DIEGO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- February 20, 2007 -- Althea Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of innovative technologies and services for pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, announced today the development of a molecular diagnostic capable of clearly differentiating various types of childhood cancers resulting from collaborative efforts between Althea and the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). A collection of childhood cancers affecting some 3,000 children annually, known as Small Round Blue Cell Tumors (SRBCT), are difficult to characterize using routine laboratory methods. The molecular diagnostic developed at Althea is capable of accurately differentiating the common forms of the disease: neuroblastoma, rhadbomyosarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Ewing’s family of tumors. Althea’s molecular diagnostic test is described in a recently published paper titled, “Diagnosis of the Small Round Blue Cell Tumors Using Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction,” in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics (Vol. 9, No. 1), February 2007.
