PBPC mobilization with chemotherapy and G–CSF in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia: quantification of bcr/abl‐positive cells by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization and competitive PCR

Abstract

Both FISH and QC-PCR were reliable methods of quantifying bcr/abl positivity, and they allowed selection of the optimal apheresis component for autologous transplantation. In both methods, a significant increase in bcr/abl positivity was seen from the first to the last leukapheresis. With FISH, results can be obtained within 24 hours. This method may prevent additional contaminated leukapheresis in case of increasing percentages of bcr/abl-positive cells.

Comparison of processing four and five times the patients’ blood volume during peripheral blood stem cell collection and analysis of CD34+38– and CD34+49d+ subsets during apheresis

“…Moreover, when the patients responded to the induction treatment, at the same time peripheral blood lymphoma cell contamination increased. Continued tumor cell mobilization was also described by Keil et al (Keil et al 2001) in six patients with CML. They found increasing bcr/abl positivity from the ®rst to the last PBSCC which might be indicative for tumor cell mobilization by the procedure itself.…”