Publication Date:
2017-12-07
Description:
Background: MRD is an established biomarker to evaluate treatment efficacy, define patients at risk based on persistent MRD, and eventually, act as surrogate for prolonged survival based on sensitive MRD-negative definitions. Accordingly, the IMWG has developed criteria for MRD-negativity defined by next-generation sequencing, NGF or PET/CT, and has recommended their inclusion in clinical trials. Notwithstanding, most flow cytometry results have been obtained using less sensitive methods and in fact, there is no data about the impact of NGF-based MRD assessment in clinical trials. Aim: To define the feasibility, sensitivity and clinical impact of NGF-based MRD assessment in the phase III PETHEMA/GEM2012 trial. Methods: A total of 458 patients were enrolled into the PETHEMA/GEM2012 trial. MRD was predefined to be prospectively assessed at three time-points: after six induction cycles with bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (VRD), after HDT/ASCT, and after two courses of consolidation with VRD. MRD monitoring was performed blinded for clinical outcomes in four PETHEMA/GEM laboratory cores, and data was centralized for MRD analyses. MRD assessment was performed following EuroFlow SOPs in a total of 1,134 bone marrow (BM) samples from 419 patients. The 39 cases without MRD assessment had suboptimal response to induction and were thus considered as MRD+ for intention-to-treat analyses. Noteworthy, in 14 BM samples with undetectable MRD, B-cell precursors, erythroblasts and mast cells represented
Print ISSN:
0006-4971
Electronic ISSN:
1528-0020
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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