Immunophenotypic Assessment Of Minimal Residual Disease In Younger Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients Is Highly Predictive Of Outcome

Introduction: Mainstay of chemotherapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is induction with a goal to achieve morphological complete remission (CR) as evident by less than 5% blasts. Post remission strategies then focus on either consolidation chemotherapy or allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (aBMT). However, not all patients by this remission criterion achieve long term remission and a subset of patients' relapse. This relapse originates from further expansion chemoresistant clones. Detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) following chemotherapy, early in the course of treatment, is highly predictive of outcome and offers a window of opportunity to intensify treatment and prevent relapse as seen in ALL. Here, we describe assessment of immunophenotypic MRD using a 10-colour two tube assay and a combination of difference from normal and leukemia associated immunophenotype (LAIP) approach in patients of adult AML.