WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- PerkinElmer, Inc., a global leader focused on the health and safety of people and the environment, today announced the introduction of a new oncology testing service. The new service utilizes OncoChip™, a new microarray technology to aid in faster, earlier and more accurate diagnoses of hematological malignancies.
The OncoChip technology assists physicians and clinicians by quickly identifying chromosome abnormalities, including gains, losses and balanced translocations to aid physicians in providing patient diagnosis and prognosis. The results of the OncoChip microarray technology may allow for more targeted, rapid and accurate treatments of patients with hematological cancers, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, T-cell and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“Findings using OncoChip have the potential to help clarify or alter a patient’s diagnosis and prognosis as well as reclassify the disease. Results are provided faster, accurately and with more clinical relevance than current standard methods, which furthers our goal to enable a more personalized approach to treatments,” says Lisa G. Shaffer, PhD, president, PerkinElmer’s Signature Genomics Laboratories. “The OncoChip also allows for the detection of even more chromosome abnormalities than has been possible previously.”
The OncoChip offering is among the very first microarrays that can detect balanced translocations, their partners and their breakpoints associated with the hematological malignancies listed above. Clinicians can select from a broad menu of cancer-specific panels that will be run by PerkinElmer’s Signature Genomics Laboratories, using cutting-edge software applications that have been designed to allow for customization suiting the needs of each individual patient.
PerkinElmer is offering two distinct OncoChip™ microarray options, including Copy Number Evaluation (CNE) and Translocation Assessment (TA). CNE detects all clinically relevant copy-number gains and losses commonly seen by karyotype. It also measures gains and losses below the resolution of karyotyping and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), providing more detailed information. The TA microarray option detects the clinically relevant balanced translocations identified by FISH and karyotype and precisely recognizes balanced translocation breakpoints, as well as balanced translocation partners not distinguishable by these methods. Another feature of the TA is that it distinguishes between the variable translocation breakpoints within a single gene, which can have a dramatic impact on a patient’s prognosis and treatment.
OncoChip was developed and validated by Signature Genomics Laboratories in accordance with CLIA ’88 regulations.
About PerkinElmer, Inc.
PerkinElmer, Inc. is a global leader focused on improving the health and safety of people and the environment. The Company reported revenue of approximately $1.7 billion in 2010, has about 6,200 employees serving customers in more than 150 countries, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index. Additional information is available through 1-877-PKI-NYSE, or at www.perkinelmer.com.
Contact:
Edelman (on behalf of PerkinElmer, Inc.) Amanda L. Connolly, 404-832-6785 amanda.connolly@edelman.com
