Clinical significance of regularly monitoring bone marrow minimal residual disease with flow cytometry in patients with acute myeloid leukemia / 中国医师进修杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the clinical significance of bone marrow minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring by multi-parameter flow cytometry (FCM) regularly after the first complete remission (CR1) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).Methods A total of 63 paitents with AML who had got CR1 after chemotherapy were regularly monitored for MRD in bone marrow by FCM,and MRD ≥ 10-4 was positive.According to the latest standards of National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) for disease risks,they were categorized into three groups:better risk group (20 cases),intermediate risk group (27 cases) and poor risk group (16 cases).The probability of continuous complete remission (CCR) was calculated by KaplanMeier formula,and the statistical difference between MRD positivc and MRD negative CCR probabilities was evaluated by log-rank test.Results The positive rates of MRD were 20％(4/20),30％(8/27) and 10/16 in better risk group,intermediate risk group and poor risk group respectively.The difference between better risk group and intermediate risk group had no statistical significance (P=0.454),and the difference between poor risk group and intermediate risk group had statistical significance (P =0.035).Twenty-two cases showed positive MRD,and 41 cases showed negative MRD.The probability of CCR at 24 and 36 months in MRD positive patients were 18％ (4/22),18％ (4/22),in MRD negative patients were 83％ (34/41),80％ (33/41),and there were significant differences (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions The dynamic detection of MRD by FCM can be used to evaluate the therapeutic effect and prognosis of AML.MRD monitoring has important clinical significance and can help to adjust the intensity of chemotherapy,carry out individualized treatment,predict prognosis,and choose appropriate therapy.