A method to identify new molecular markers for assessing minimal residual disease in acute leukemia patients

Authors	JANCUSKOVA T PLACHY R ŠTIKA Jiří ZEMANKOVA L HARDEKOPF DW LIEHR T KOSYAKOVA N CMEJLA R ZEJSKOVA L KOZAK T ZAK P ZAVRELOVA A HAVLIKOVA P KARAS M JUNGE A RAMEL C PEKOVA S
Year of publication	2013
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Leukemia Research
Citation
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leukres.2013.06.009
Keywords	Acute leukemia; Minimal residual disease; Cytogenetics; Chromosome microdissection; Next-generation sequencing; Personalized medicine
Description	Acute leukemias (AL) comprise a heterogeneous group of hematologic malignancies, and individual patient responses to treatment can be difficult to predict. Monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) is thus very important and holds great potential for improving treatment strategies. Common MRD targets include recurrent cytogenetic abnormalities and mutations in important hematological genes; unfortunately well-characterized targets are lacking in many AL patients. Here we demonstrate a technical approach for the identification and mapping of novel clone-specific chromosomal abnormalities down to the nucleotide level. We used molecular cytogenetics, chromosome microdissection, amplification of the microdissected material, and next-generation sequencing to develop PCR-based MRD assays based on unique breakpoint sequences. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.