| Definition |
One of the most important challenges in leukemia treatment is accurately distinguishing patients who require more intensive (and potentially more toxic) therapy from those in whom high cure rates can be achieved with less-intensive therapy. Minimal residual disease studies provide direct measurements of the response of individual patients´ leukemic cells to chemotherapy and reflect the combined effects of clinical, cellular, and pharmacologic variables. This information can be used to improve strategies of risk assessment and treatment selection for children with ALL.
Patients in clinical remission after induction therapy may have “minimal residual disease”, i.e., leukemia cells that can only be detected by highly sensitive techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or specialized flow cytometry. Numerous groups have reported an association between minimal residual disease and outcome with early absence of minimal residual disease being associated with better outcome and presence of minimal residual disease being associated with poor outcome.
|
