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 1(st) month (p=0.008 and p<0.001) and at 3(rd) month (p<0.001 for both). By combining chimerism and WT1 at 3(rd) 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 (1(st) and 3(rd) month) are useful MRD markers. When considered together at 3(rd) month, CD34+ molecular chimerism could represent an earlier predictor of relapse compared to WT1. Further studies are necessary to confirm this preliminary observation.