Sakatani T, Shimazaki C, Hirai H, Okano A, Hatsuse M, Okamoto A, Takahashi R, Ashihara E, Inaba T, Yokota H, Nakahara K, Hirai H, Nakagawa M
Second Department of Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan.
Leuk Lymphoma. 2001 Jun;42(1-2):225-9. doi: 10.3109/10428190109097695.
A 24-year-old woman who suffered from ALL with MLL gene rearrangement received high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous PBSC transplantation during complete remission (CR). Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) used to detect MLL/LTG4 chimeric mRNA showed no minimal residual disease (MRD) in the graft or bone marrow at the transplantation. However, the leukemia relapsed four months after transplantation. Retrospective analysis of quantitative measurement of Wilms tumor gene (WT-1) mRNA showed an increased level in the bone marrow although it was within the normal range. These observations suggest that careful monitoring of MRD by quantitative measurement of WT-1 mRNA in addition to disease-specific chimeric mRNA is required to predict relapse.
