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Minimal Residual Disease in Acute Myeloid Leukemia—Current Status and Future Perspectives

  • Acute Myeloid Leukemias (R Stone, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

In acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the achievement of a morphological complete remission (CR) is an important milestone on the road to cure. Still, the majority of patients who achieve a morphological CR will eventually relapse. Thus, morphological means are not sensitive enough to detect clinically relevant tumor burdens left behind after therapy. Over the last years, several methodologies, particularly multiparameter flow cytometry and polymerase chain reaction, have emerged that can detect, quantify, and monitor submicroscopic amounts of leukemia cells (“minimal residual disease”, MRD). Newer techniques, such as next-generation sequencing, have not only changed our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis and clonal heterogeneity of AML but may also be used for MRD detection. Increasing evidence indicates that MRD could play an important role in dynamically refining disease risk and, perhaps, serve to fine-tune post-remission therapy in a risk-adapted manner, although the latter concept awaits validation through well-controlled trials. In this review, we discuss the current use of MRD measurements during AML treatment and highlight future perspectives.

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Acknowledgments

S.K. gratefully acknowledges extramural funding from the University of Heidelberg.

R.F.S. gratefully acknowledges grants from the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (P80/08 // A65/08), from the German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (01GI9981, 01KG0605, 01KG1004), and the Deutsche José Carreras Leukämie-Stiftung (DJCLS H 09/22). R.B.W. is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar in Clinical Research.

We thank Dr. Farhad Ravandi for reviewing the manuscript.

Financial Support

R.B.W. is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar in Clinical Research.

Author Contributions

S.K. and R.F.S. were responsible for the concept of this review, contributed to the literature search data collection/quality assessment, analyzed and interpreted data, and wrote the manuscript. R.B.W. and W.S. analyzed and interpreted data and critically revised the manuscript.

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

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Conflict of interest

Sabine Kayser, Roland B. Walter, Wendy Stock, and Richard F. Schlenk each declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine V, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sabine Kayser

  2. Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., D2-190, Seattle, WA, 98109-1024, USA

    Roland B. Walter

  3. Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Roland B. Walter

  4. Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Roland B. Walter

  5. Section of Hematology/Oncology, The University of Chicago Medical Center, 5841 S. Maryland, M/C 2115, Chicago, IL, 60637-1463, USA

    Wendy Stock

  6. Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany

    Richard F. Schlenk

Authors
  1. Sabine Kayser
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  2. Roland B. Walter
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  3. Wendy Stock
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  4. Richard F. Schlenk
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sabine Kayser.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Acute Myeloid Leukemias

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Kayser, S., Walter, R.B., Stock, W. et al. Minimal Residual Disease in Acute Myeloid Leukemia—Current Status and Future Perspectives. Curr Hematol Malig Rep 10, 132–144 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11899-015-0260-7

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