Bone marrow CD34+ molecular chimerism as an early predictor of relapse after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Background Minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring is an important tool to optimally address post-transplant management of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the impact of bone marrow CD34+ molecular chimerism and WT1 on the outcome of a consecutive series of 168 AML patients submitted to allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Results The cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR) was significantly lower in patients with donor chimerism on CD34+ cells ≥ 97.5% and WT1 < 213 copies/ABL x 10^4 both at 1st month (p=0.008 and p<0.001) and at 3rd month (p<0.001 for both). By combining chimerism and WT1 at 3rd month, 13 patients with chimerism < 97.5% or WT1 > 213 showed intermediate prognosis. 12 of these patients fell in this category because of molecular chimerism < 97.5% at a time-point in which WT1 was < 213. Conclusions Our results confirm that lineage-specific molecular chimerism and WT1 after allo-SCT (1st and 3rd month) are useful MRD markers. When considered together at 3rd month, CD34+ molecular chimerism could represent an earlier predictor of relapse compared to WT1. Further studies are necessary to confirm this preliminary observation.

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