Publication Date:
2016-12-02
Description:
BACKGROUND: The immune system plays an essential role in both promoting and inhibiting the growth of MM. Loss of anti-myeloma immunity involves altered activation and polarization of effector cells as well as immunosuppressive cytokines. Immune dysfunction associated with MM can be partially or totally reversed when patients achieve clinical remission. Detection of MRD has become an achievable goal in MM, and is a powerful predictor of progression-free survival and overall survival. We hypothesized that the immune profile of MRDpos patients is distinct from MRDneg patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS : We studied peripheral NK, NK-T and T cell distribution/activation, and measured bone marrow MRD status by flow cytometry in 30 newly diagnosed MM patients 60+ days after ASCT. Patients were divided in 2 groups based on κ/λ ratio and MM-plasma cell (MM-PC) distribution: MRDneg (n=6), with κ/λ ratio ≤1.8 and MM-PC≤15 per million or MRDpos (n=24), with MM-PC〉15 per million. Plasma was also collected from 17 of these patients (5 MRDneg and 12 MRDpos) 60+ days after ASCT to quantify inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and growth factors by multiplex protein assay. Linear regression was used to determine association between each tested variable (25 by flow cytometry and 27 by multiplex protein assay) and MRD status. Unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis was then applied to post-ASCT samples with selected variables that were differentially expressed between MRDneg and MRDpos patients (p
Print ISSN:
0006-4971
Electronic ISSN:
1528-0020
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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