Ricerc@Sapienza

Introduction: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the first neoplasm where the assessment of early response to therapy by minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring has proven to be a fundamental tool to guide therapeutic choices. The most standardized methods to study MRD in ALL are multi-parametric flow cytometry (MFC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification-based methods. Emerging technologies hold the promise to improve MRD detection in ALL patients.

Minimal residual disease (MRD) is the strongest prognostic factor in both childhood and adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Tumor load reduction during/after induction treatment predicts response to therapy and risk of relapse, and thus guides treatment decisions [1].