Availability of 10 color flow cytometry in childhood leukemia MRD detection

Abstract

In childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the clinical significance of minimal residual disease (MRD) has been demonstrated. Polymerase chain reaction assays based on the detection of clonal rearrangement of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes are most established method for MRD analysis. However, the flow cytometric detection of MRD also has advantages in simplicity of the method as well as a low-cost, high-performance. Conventionally, 3 or 4 color analysis employing multiple test tubes of the panel of antibodies is used for the detection of leukemia-associated immunophenotypes, whereas we developed 10 color methods of MRD detection for both BCP-ALL and T-ALL. Our methods are able to take effect easily and exhibit high performance. To put it to practical use, further investigations are now underway.