Final OPAL Phase II Results of Tosedostat Demonstrate Significant Response Rates in Elderly Patients with Treatment Refractory or Relapsed Primary or Secondary Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) and Chroma Therapeutics Ltd. announced that final results from the phase II OPAL study of tosedostat in elderly patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia were presented by Jorge Cortes, M.D. of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center during the Acute Myeloid Leukemia - Therapy, excluding Transplantation: Clinical Studies session at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting.

The results demonstrate that once-daily oral tosedostat has encouraging anti-leukemic activity in poor risk elderly patients that had prior myelodysplatic syndrome or had previously failed treatment with hypomethylating agents. Based on these results CTI and Chroma are currently planning a phase III study in patients with high risk MDS or secondary AML who have failed to respond adequately to HMAs. CTI and Chroma currently expect to initiate the study in the second quarter of 2012.