Clinical utility of quantitative PCR for chimerism and engraftment monitoring after allogeneic stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies

Although quantitative PCR (qPCR) has been explored for chimerism monitoring after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT), evidence regarding its clinical utility compared with standard short tandem repeat (STR) is still limited. We retrospectively studied commercial qPCR and STR chimerism with respective positivity thresholds of .1% and 1% in 359 peripheral blood (PB) and 95 bone marrow (BM) samples from 30 adult patients after first HLA-matched SCT for myeloid malignancies or acute lymphatic leukemia. Concordance between the 2 methods was 79.5%, with all discordant samples positive in qPCR but negative in STR. Of the latter, sporadic qPCR positivity without clinical correlates was seen mostly in BM samples early post-transplant. In 7 of 21 patients with available follow-up samples in the first months after transplantation, qPCR but not STR revealed low levels (1%) of sustained host chimerism in PB, reflecting delayed engraftment or persistent mixed chimerism (PMC). These conditions were associated with donor-recipient cytomegalovirus (CMV) serostatus and early CMV reactivation but not with immunosuppressive regimens or clinical outcome. qPCR predicted all 8/8 relapses with samples in the 6 months before onset by sustained positivity in both PB and BM compared with 1/8 relapses predicted by STR mainly in BM. The response kinetics to donor lymphocyte infusions for the treatment of PMC or relapse was shown by qPCR but not STR to be protracted over several months in 3 patients. Our results demonstrate the superior clinical utility of qPCR compared with STR for monitoring subtle changes of host chimerism associated with different clinical conditions, making a case for its use in the clinical follow-up of transplant patients.