High prognostic value of measurable residual disease detection by flow cytometry in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients treated with front-line fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab, followed by three years of rituximab maintenance.

It has been postulated that monitoring measurable residual disease (MRD) could be used as a surrogate marker of progression-free survival (PFS) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients after treatment with immunochemotherapy regimens. In this study, we analyzed the outcome of 84 patients at 3 years of follow-up after first-line treatment with fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and rituximab (FCR) induction followed by 36 months of rituximab maintenance thearpy. MRD was assessed by a quantitative four-color flow cytometry panel with a sensitivity level of 10 Eighty out of 84 evaluable patients (95.

Acute myeloblastic leukemia.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of clonal cell disorders characterized by maturation defects, resulting in ineffective hematopoiesis. They often transform to acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML), which is difficult to treat and carries a dismal prognosis. Azacitidine is a hypomethylating agent approved for the treatment of patients with MDS, including AML with 20% to 30% bone marrow blasts, according to World Health Organization classification.