In these two review articles on minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with acute leukemia, the authors discuss the recent research showing that the likelihood of relapse after transplant is directly associated with levels of MRD before transplant. They propose that MRD be considered along with cytogenetics and molecular markers to identify patients unlikely to be cured by standard chemotherapy and who should therefore be referred for possible HCT. In addition, they note that MRD analysis can be used to determine the optimal timing of HCT, guide the selection of conditioning regimens, and select post-transplant strategies that maximize the graft-versus-leukemia effect.
Buckley SA, et al. Bone Marrow Transplant
Campana D, et al. Br J Haematol
Related: Prophylactic or MRD-triggered post-HCT imatinib