Prognostic significance of flow cytometric minimal residual disease assessment after the first induction course in Chinese childhood acute myeloid leukemia

Flow cytometry based minimal residual disease (MRD) was evaluated for outcome prediction in childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The median levels of MRD in relapsed and nonrelapsed patients were different after the first induction (0.64% vs. 0.18%, P = 0.030). A cutoff level of ≥0.25% after the first course of induction was correlated with a high risk of relapse in both univariate analysis (5-year cumulative incidence of relapse: 66.8% vs. 21.2%, P = 0.002) and multivariate analyses (hazard ratio: 3.70, 95% CI, 1.23–11.08, P = 0.020). Our results showed that MRD level after the first induction therapy provides important information for risk assessment in childhood AML.