Molecular monitoring of residual disease in chronic myeloid leukemia by genomic DNA compared with conventional mRNA analysis.

ABSTRACT: Translocation t(9;22), which produces the BCR-ABL gene, is pathognomonic of chronic myeloid leukemia. For clinical purposes, the amount of chimeric transcript is considered proportional to the leukemic clone; thus, mRNA is commonly used for molecular monitoring of patients. However, there is no consensus regarding the degree of increase in mRNA that should cause concern or whether the absence of transcript indicates a "cure." In this study, we analyzed 57 samples from 10 chronic myeloid leukemia patients undergoing imatinib treatment. For each sample, we compared BCR-ABL mRNA levels with the actual proportion of leukemic cells, which were measured through a novel genomic approach based on the quantitative amplification of DNA breakpoints. The two approaches gave similar patterns of residua

SUBMITTER: Mattarucchi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2729847 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature