Clinical Significance of Monitoring Levels of BCR-ABL mRNA in Patients With Chronic Myeloid Leukemia by Real-time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction

Objective:To explore the application of real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RQ- PCR) in detecting minimal residual disease (MRD),assessing curative effects and predicting the prognosis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Methods: Changes of levels of BCR-ABL were detected by the method of RQ-PCR in samples of bone marrow (BM) obtained from 25 patients with CML receiving imatinib or allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Results: The levels of BCR-ABL mRNA were obviously higher in patients with CML-blastic phase than those in patients with CML-chronic phase or CML-accelerated phase. The BCR-ABL mRNA levels in the later 6 months were obviously lower than those in the former 6 months after HSCT in 7 cases. The BCR-ABL mRNA levels declined clearly in 3 cases,and even to zero in 6 months in 4 cases. Patients treated with imatinib had a significant decrease in the expression level of BCR-ABL during the previous 6 months. It showed similarity in curative effects between patients receiving imatinib and HSCT in 12 months after treatment. Conclusions: RQ-PCR targeted at BCR-ABL can be used in the quantitative detection of MRD in CML,and provide gist for instructing clinical therapy.