Monitoring of residual disease in chronic myelogenous leukemia by quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become a standard method for highly sensitive detection of the bcr/abl rearrangement in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The exquisite sensitivity of the PCR facilitates the detection of residual leukemic cells after chemotherapy or after bone marrow transplantation. However, the detection of minimal residual disease does not yield any information on the malignant potential of the bcr/abl-rearranged cells. Qualitative PCR is therefore of limited prognostic value in the monitoring of residual leukemia. We have adapted the PCR for quantitative evaluation of cells carrying the bcr/abl rearrangement and by means of two exemplary cases of CML patients after bone marrow transplantation and under treatment with alpha-interferon, respectively, we show that this new technique is suitable for the long term follow-up of the activity of the residual bcr/abl rearranged clone. Longitudinal monitoring of residual disease by the technique presented provides a novel tool for detection of incipient relapse at a very early stage.