The detection and significance of minimal residual disease in acute and chronic leukemia

Minimal residual disease (MRD) can be detected in many patients with leukemia who have achieved complete remission as defined by conventional pathology examination. The detection of MRD, be it by flow cytometry or by polymerase chain reaction assays, has now been found to be associated with subsequent relapses in most leukemia subtypes, either following chemotherapy or following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. These assays are now increasingly used in clinical trial design to optimize therapy and provide a novel way to assess treatment efficacy.