title: Minimal residual disease testing in acute leukemia by flow cytometry immunophenotyping: prognostic significance.
abstract: Two main techniques are being used for the detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) in acute leukemia (AL): immunophenotypic analysis and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In this paper, we analyze the results of assessing MRD by means of flow cytometry (FC) in a group of 93 patients with AL who were prospectively studied and treated in a single institution over a 9-year period. The presence or absence of MRD was established at a cut-off level of 2%, as judged by FC; a single result above this level was considered to define the positivity. The patients were grouped in 4 subsets: (1) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients with MRD (n = 36); (2) acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) patients with MRD (n = 13); (3) ALL patients without MRD (n = 31); and (4) AML patients without MRD (n = 13). The relapse rates in these groups were 17%, 8%, 0%, and 0%, respectively, whereas the overall 7-year survival was 65%, 69%, 83%, and 98%, respectively. Our results support the usefulness of serially assessing MRD in patients with AL by means of FC; because this method is applicable to all cases of AL, despite being less sensitive than a molecular biology study; it is a good option to follow-up patients and to decide therapeutic and timely interventions.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico. gruiz1@clinicaruiz.com
authors.forename: Guillermo J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Argüelles
authors.forename: Danitza
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fernández-Lara
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Estrada-Gómez
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Manzano
authors.forename: Guillermo J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Delgado
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pérez-Romano
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Argüelles
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000097:blood*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000097:blood*; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000097:blood*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers