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Minimal residual disease after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for chronic myeloid leukaemia: a metaphase-FISH study.

el-Rifai W, Ruutu T, Vettenranta K, Temtamy S, Knuutila S
Br J Haematol. 1996 92 (2): 365-9

PMID: 8603001 · DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2141.1996.d01-1507.x

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.

MeSH Terms (15)

Adolescent Adult Bone Marrow Transplantation Child Female Follow-Up Studies Humans In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive Male Metaphase Middle Aged Neoplasm, Residual Philadelphia Chromosome Prognosis

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