Role Of Day-15 Peripheral Blood MRD Assessment In Pediatric B-ALL Patients

Abstract

IntroductionMinimal residual disease (MRD) has emerged as an independent prognostic factor for patients of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). There is a strong correlation between MRD levels in bone marrow and the risk of relapse in childhood & adult leukemias 1, 2. Bone marrow MRD (BM-MRD) level of ≥ 0.01% is considered as positive and a mid-induction MRD of ≥ 1% is associated with high risk of relapse 3. Recently, the concept of peripheral blood MRD (PB-MRD), as a replacement for BM-MRD, has hit the lime light. In pediatric B-ALL, presence of PB-MRD is associated with a high relapse rate in comparison to cases which are PB-MRD negative 4, 5.This study was aimed to compare the levels of mid-induction (day 15) MRD levels in bone marrow and peripheral blood of pediatric B-ALL patients with a hypothesis that PB-MRD levels correlate with BM-MRD levels, and thus can predict BM-MRD levels for further management of the patient. MethodsForty newly diagnosed CD19+CD10+CD34+/- pediatric B-ALL patients under Vincristine, L-Asparaginase and Dexamethasone, were assessed for MRD levels on their paired day 15 PB & BM samples using six colour flow cytometry. With informed consent, both the samples were collected in EDTA vacutainers and lyse-stain-wash technique was used to prepare a single six colour tube comprising of SYTO 13/ CD34PE/ CD20PerCP/ CD19 PECy7/ CD10APC/ CD45APCH7 for each sample. The processed samples were run on BD FACS Canto II with acquisition of 1 million events or till the tubes were empty. Analysis was done using BD FACS Diva software and MRD of ≥ 0.01% was considered positive. ResultsAmong 40 pairs of day 15 PB and BM samples, 25 (62.5%) were BM-MRD positive. Sixteen pairs (40%) had PB-MRD and BM-MRD co-positivity, 9 pairs (22.5%) had isolated BM-MRD positivity and 15 pairs (37.5%) were MRD negative in both PB and BM samples. In other words, among the 25 BM-MRD positive cases, simultaneous PB-MRD was positive in 16 patients (64%) and none of the samples had isolated PB-MRD positivity. Overall analysis of MRD positive cases showed a direct correlation between PB-MRD and BM-MRD (ρ = +0.684, p < 0.000) and BM-MRD levels were 7 times higher than the PB-MRD. In addition, ROC analysis with PB-MRD of ≥ 0.01% as a cut-off, revealed that, the most likelihood of PB-MRD being positive was when BM-MRD was ≥ 0.31%. ConclusionsIn contrast to the sparsely available literature, our study shows a significant correlation between PB & BM-MRD levels in day 15 paired samples of B-ALL cases. The MRD levels were 7 times higher in BM as compared to PB and PB-MRD was mostly positive with BM-MRD of ≥0.31%. In other words, day 15 PB-MRD positivity indirectly indicates that there is a minimum BM-MRD of 0.31%. Since literature reports prognostic significance of mid-induction BM-MRD at levels ≥1%, on day 15, an assessment of peripheral blood MRD alone, might yield clinically relevant prognostic information. A paired analysis at different time points might also establish a similar correlation as seen in the present study, eliminating the need of BM-MRD during further follow ups of the patient. This will help in avoiding an invasive procedure and improve patient compliance.