Klin Padiatr 2004; 216 - 1
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-828546

Comparison of five colour- flowcytometry and PCR in the detection of minimal residual disease in neuroblastoma

C Andreas 1, C Pieper 1, S Zimmermann 1, A Brinkmann 1, R Quaritsch 1, S Grohal 1, S Wehner 1, K Bochennek 1, T Lehrnbecher 1, T Klingebiel 1, U Koehl 1
  • 1Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, J. W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

In contrast to acute lymphatic leukemia, the clinical impact of minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with neuroblastoma (NB) is unclear. In order to detect and monitor residual NB cells, we established a new five colour-flowcytometry panel and assays using RT-PCR and Real-time PCR for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). All methods were able to detect one NB cell in 105 normal cells. We analyzed a total of 322 samples (bone marrow and autologous peripheral blood stem cells which were collected for autologous transplantation) from 44 NB patients. Seventy-three percent of the 322 samples were positive, 15% were negative for NB cells. We found a highly significant correlation between flowcytometry, Real-time PCR and RT-PCR (P≤.0001). We conclude that both PCR for TH and five colour-flowcytometry are valuable tools to monitor minimal residual disease in patients with NB. Currently, we perform a prospective study to evaluate a potential correlation between MRD and survival.