Molecular Monitoring of Minimal Residual Disease in the Peripheral Blood of Patients with Multiple Myeloma

The prognostic relevance of minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with multiple myeloma is still an open question. In bone marrow, the level of residual myeloma cells is associated with treatment outcome, but the role of clonotypic cells in the peripheral blood (PB) for the prognosis of patients is not identified yet. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed MRD by quantitative real-time IgH-PCR (IgH-qPCR) in the PB of 42 patients undergoing high-dose therapy followed by autologous PB stem cell transplantation as first-line therapy for multiple myeloma. The MRD level of PB samples was in median 40-fold lower than in bone marrow samples, collected on the same day, with a wide intra- and interindividual variation (range, .4- to 4628-fold). The presence or absence of detectable MRD levels in PB did not correlate with the serological remission status. Still, patients with negative PCR results in PB 3 months after high-dose therapy and PB stem cell transplantation had lower International Staging System stage (P = .01), lower levels of β2-microglobulin (P = .02), higher hemoglobin levels (P = .01), and a prolonged event-free (median, 15 versus 4 months; P = .004) and overall (median, 52 versus 17 months; P = .03) survival. Importantly, by sequential monitoring of clonotypic cells in PB, in 19 of 29 patients (66%) with progressive disease, an increase of the 2IgH/β-actin ratio of at least 1 log step could be detected in median 4 months (range, .8 to 13 months) before the relapse was diagnosed on the basis of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation criteria. These patients with a molecular relapse in PB before a serological relapse had a significantly shorter overall survival than other patients (median, 17 months versus median not reached, P = .02). In conclusion, IgH-qPCR is a sensitive technique for the detection of clonotypic cells in PB, which precede clinical relapse. Future studies are needed to evaluate whether these circulating tumor cells play a role in promoting disease recurrence.