Fast PCR-based quantitative detection of B-cell malignancies.

Available methods for the detection of minimal residual disease in hematologic malignancies are limited by their poor sensitivity and/or complexity. In order to avoid these drawbacks, we used the fast PCR technique to amplify the hypervariable chain-determining region 3 (CDR 3) of the human immunoglobulin heavy-chain gene in boiled marrow nucleated cells. This enabled us to detect malignant B-cells down to a dilution of 1 in 1,300 marrow nucleated cells within 7 hours of sampling. This new quantitative method should be useful for monitoring therapy and detecting early disease relapse in B-lymphoproliferative disease since it is 10 to 60 times as sensitive as Southern blotting.