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Minimal residual disease after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for chronic myeloid leukaemia: a metaphase‐FISH study
Author(s) -
ElRifai Wa'el,
Ruutu Tapani,
Vettenrant a Kim,
Temtam y Samia,
Knuutila Sakari
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2141.1996.d01-1507.x
Subject(s) - minimal residual disease , bone marrow , medicine , transplantation , metaphase , myeloid , gastroenterology , stage (stratigraphy) , pathology , immunology , biology , paleontology , biochemistry , chromosome , gene
Metaphase‐FISH was adopted for the detection of proliferating Philadelphia‐positive (Ph + ) residual leukaemic cells in 25 patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia treated with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Patients were followed up during their clinical remission for 4–50 months (median 17 months) after BMT. 80 bone marrow samples were studied. For most of the cases no fewer than 1000 metaphases were analysed. Six patients (24%) showed residual Ph + cells during the first 6 months and two others by the end of the first year after BMT. Three patients relapsed during the study and in two of them residual Ph + cells were detected during the first 6 months after BMT. In 17 patients no Ph + cells were detected at any stage of follow‐up and 16 (94.1%) of them continue in complete clinical and haematological remission. Our results indicate that metaphase‐FISH is a reliable tool in the quantitation of proliferating residual leukaemic cells. We suggest that consecutive findings of equal amounts of residual leukaemic cells do not necessarily predict a relapse. However, their presence calls for follow‐up at shorter intervals where an increasing number of these cells predicts an ensuing relapse.