Minimal residual disease post-bone marrow transplantation for hemato-oncological diseases

The detection of minimal residual disease (MRD), which is important in cancer treatment, gained special significance in bone marrow transplantation (BMT) due to the possibility not just to detect but recently also to prevent, treat and reinduce remission in patients that relapsed post-BMT by immunotherapy. The various modern techniques of MRD detection are described including cytogenetics, analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism, variable number of tandem repeats by Southern Blot or polymerase chain reaction (PCR), microsatellite sequences, PCR amplification products of the Y chromosome or the Amelogenin gene, quantitative PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization. The role of MRD detection in refinement of indications for BMT, autografting, prediction of relapse, adoptive immunotherapy, mixed chimerism in nonmalignant diseases and in solid organ transplantation is discussed.