Praktyka kliniczna oceny minimalnej choroby resztkowej u chorych na szpiczaka plazmocytowego w Polsce : badanie ankietowe Polskiego Konsorcjum Szpiczakowego

Studies exploring the significance of minimal residual disease (MRD) in plasma cell myeloma (PCM) have proven its prognostic value, regardless of the type of administered treatment. In order to assess the current practice for evaluating MRD in Poland, we conducted a survey on the methods for assessing MRD and on the MRD testing time points at Polish hematological centres. Seven out of 15 institutions surveyed use of the flow cytometry (FC) method for MRD assessment. The FC-MRD assessment is performed uniformly only in those patients achieving complete remission (CR). However, the specific indications and assessment time points differed at the tested centres including: testing MRD only after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-HSCT), after auto-HSCT and consolidation, after completion of first line chemotherapy or after obtaining CR in any line of treatment. The study also showed considerable heterogeneity in the FC-MRD methodology, which affects test sensitivity (from 10–3 to 10–5). None of the surveyed centres uses molecular techniques for MRD assessment. In 8 of the 15 institutions, patients are monitored by imaging techniques. Our survey may thus be useful for developing guidelines and standardization of MRD assessment in PCM in Poland.