OUR AIMS

ERIC aims to promote and/or advance the analysis of the clonotypic BcR IG, including the determination of IGHV gene mutational status and the assessment to major stereotyped subsets #2 and #8 for diagnostic and prognostication purposes by educating the hematological community about:

  1. the need for performing immunogenetic analysis of the BcR IG in all CLL cases
  2. the quality of the appropriate experimental and analytical techniques to be utilized by diagnostic laboratories to ensure reliable and comparable results across different institutions in Europe and abroad.

Ultimately, this will improve optimal patient care and will increase the availability of relevant tests, allowing clinical study groups, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, to properly identify particularly difficult-to-treat CLL patients in routine diagnostics and clinical trials with the aim to further improving long-term outcomes.

The ERIC IG Network aims to be relevant to all personnel working in laboratories performing diagnostics for patients with CLL, including those who have never performed these analyses in the past, those who have recently introduced novel diagnostics and need reassurance on the accuracy of the procedure, and those already experienced in their use who want to keep high quality of applied methodologies. It also aims to increase physicians’ awareness of the need to test all CLL patients requiring therapy in order to select the most appropriate treatment for each case.

 

WORKING PLAN AND SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
The ERIC IG Network accomplishes its goals using the following approaches:

The online help desk has been specifically set up for laboratories facing any difficulties during the analysis. It provides methodological as well as interpretation consultation.

  • IG GENE ANALYSIS TEMPLATE REPORT FORM

This template serves as an example of the correct and comprehensive result report that should be provided to the physicians.

  • A MANUAL FOR IG GENE ANALYSIS

This manual contains concise information on the IG GENE analysis process from sampling to data interpretation.