Annals of Hematology

, Volume 93, Issue 7, pp 1097–1110 | Cite as

Relapse assessment following allogeneic SCT in patients with MDS and AML

Review Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Options to pre-emptively treat impending relapse of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) continuously increase. In recent years, the spectrum of diagnostic methods and parameters to perform post-transplant monitoring in patients with AML and MDS has grown. Cytomorphology, histomorphology, and chimaerism analysis are the mainstay in any panel of post-transplant monitoring. This may be individually combined with multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) for the detection of residual cells with a leukaemia phenotype and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR) to assess gene expression, e.g., of WT1 or the residual mutation load (e.g., in case of an NPM1 mutation). Data evaluating the aforementioned methods alone or in combination are discussed in this review with particular emphasis on data pointing towards their suitability to steer pre-emptive post-transplant interventions such as immunotherapy, chemotherapy or therapy with demethylating agents.

Keywords

Minimal residual disease (MRD) Post-transplant period Relapse risk Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) 
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Notes

Conflict of interest

TH declares part ownership of the MLL Munich Leukemia Laboratory. MC, NK, and UB declare that they have no disclosures to make.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Cell BiologyAlbert Einstein College of MedicineThe BronxUSA
  2. 2.Department for Stem Cell TransplantationUniversity of HamburgHamburgGermany
  3. 3.MLL Munich Leukemia LaboratoryMunichGermany

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