Minimal residual disease (MRD) is a powerful determinant of overall outcome in multiple myeloma (MM). Previous studies have demonstrated that the presence of MRD at the traditional day 100 assessment point following autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) independently predicts for both progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS). This effect on outcome is demonstrable in patients achieving...

Minimal residual disease (MRD) is a powerful indicator of the risk of relapse in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), used for the risk-oriented application of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) in patients who remain MRD-positive (MRDþ ) following induction and consolidation chemotherapy. Although allo-SCT is less effective in MRDþ state, correlations between post-induction q...

PURPOSE Fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and mitoxantrone (FCM) results in a high response rate in previously treated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The aim of this study was to investigate FCM as frontline therapy in CLL. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Sixty-nine patients under the age of 65 years with active CLL were treated. Patients received six cycles of fludarabine 25 mg/m(2) i.v....

Obesity is associated with poorer event-free survival (EFS) in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Persistent minimal residual disease (MRD) in the bone marrow as measured by multidimensional flow cytometry (MDF) is a key early prognostic indicator and is strongly associated with EFS. We therefore hypothesized that obesity during induction would be associated with positive end-of-indu...

The use of minimal residual disease (MRD) measurement as a surrogate marker of molecular response to treatment can potentially improve the evaluation of treatment response and enable estimates of the residual leukemic cell burden during clinical remission, thereby improving the selection of therapeutic strategies and, possibly, long-term clinical outcome. The most specific and sensitive methods...

Over the past 2 decades, dramatic improvements in the efficacy of treatments for chronic lymphocytic leukemia have led to progressively higher percentages of clinical complete remissions. A molecular eradication of the leukemia has become not only a desirable, but also an achievable, end point that needs to be evaluated within clinical trials. The assessment of complete remission only at the cl...

The measurement of minimal residual disease (MRD) in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has become the most important prognostic tool of, and the backbone to, upfront risk stratification. While MRD assessment is the standard of care for assessing response and predicting outcomes for pediatric patients with ALL receiving chemotherapy, its use in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell trans...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) carrying t(9;22) or t(4;11) genetic abnormalities represents a very high risk subtype of disease (VHR-ALL). Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains the best curative option not only for t(4;11) ALL, but also for t(9;22) ALL in the tyrosin-kinase inhibitors era. In the last years, low molecular level of minimal residual...

Minimal residual disease (MRD) refers to the small number of malignant cells that remain after therapy when the patient is in remission and shows no symptoms or overt signs of disease. Current treatment protocols for haematological malignancies allow most patients to obtain some form of MRD state, but cure seldom follows and in most cases fatal relapses occur sooner or later, leaving a bitter i...