Assessment of minimal residual disease in patients with acute leukemia.

The use of highly sensitive and specific assays to detect residual disease in patients with acute leukemia should provide a basis for optimizing therapy and maximizing each patient's chance of cure. Strategies for detecting residual disease are based on biologic properties that allow acute leukemia cells to be distinguished from normal marrow cells. Techniques used to detect residual disease in acute leukemia include the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, the polymerase chain reaction, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and multiparameter flow cytometry. Contributions to the field published in the past year are reviewed in this article.