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Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia pp 211–238Cite as

Minimal Residual Disease Quantification in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Clinical Significance and Flow Cytometric Methods

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1881))

Abstract

The very sensitive quantification of leukemia cells that persist in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients after successful therapy is steadily gaining interest with clinical scientists. Minimal residual disease (MRD) has demonstrated prognostic significance in the context of different treatment modalities leading to its approval as an intermediate endpoint for licensure in randomized trials by the European Medicine Agency. Data supporting the clinical impact of MRD as well as a highly standardized and broadly available method for MRD assessments by flow cytometry are described herein. Examples of gating strategies are provided with comprehensive explanations to allow the reader the application of the technology to blood and bone samples with high and very low level MRD, respectively. This chapter has a particular focus on samples acquired shortly after anti-CD20 treatment. The standardization developed by the EuroFlow consortium is additionally described as technical basis for reproducible and standardized flow cytometric MRD assessments.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to E. Harbst, L. Falck, J. Hanani, and L. Henseleit for excellent technical support with establishing the protocols and thanks the members of the EuroFlow and ERIC consortiums for long-standing collaborations. B. Wiebeck is acknowledged for critical reading of the manuscript. Parts of this manuscript are based on a previously published chapter in Methods in Molecular Biology by the author, Matthias Ritgen, and Michael Kneba [43].

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  1. Rostock University Medical Center, Rostock, Germany

    Sebastian Böttcher

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  1. Sebastian Böttcher
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Correspondence to Sebastian Böttcher .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Sami N. Malek

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Böttcher, S. (2019). Minimal Residual Disease Quantification in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Clinical Significance and Flow Cytometric Methods. In: Malek, S. (eds) Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1881. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8876-1_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8876-1_17

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-8875-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-8876-1

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