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Tumour Cell Contamination

Gene scanning of VDJH-amplified segments is a clinically relevant technique to detect contaminating tumor cells in the apheresis products of multiple myeloma patients undergoing autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 28, pages 665–672 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Contaminating tumour cells in apheresis products have proved to influence the outcome of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation (APBSCT). The gene scanning of clonally rearranged VDJ segments of the heavy chain immunoglobulin gene (VDJH) is a reproducible and easy to perform technique that can be optimised for clinical laboratories. We used it to analyse the aphereses of 27 MM patients undergoing APBSCT with clonally detectable VDJH segments, and 14 of them yielded monoclonal peaks in at least one apheresis product. The presence of positive results was not related to any pre-transplant characteristics, except the age at diagnosis (lower in patients with negative products, P = 0.04). Moreover, a better pre-transplant response trended to associate with a negative result (P = 0.069). Patients with clonally free products were more likely to obtain a better response to transplant (complete remission, 54% vs 28%; >90% reduction in the M-component, 93% vs 43% P = 0.028). In addition, patients transplanted with polyclonal products had longer progression-free survival, (39 vs 19 months, P = 0.037) and overall survival (81% vs 28% at 5 years, P = 0.045) than those transplanted with monoclonal apheresis. In summary, the gene scanning of apheresis products is a useful and clinically relevant technique in MM transplanted patients. Bone Marrow Transplantation (2001) 28, 665–672.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mark Anderson and Felicitación García for their technical assistance. This work has been partially supported with the grant number 99/1243 from the Spanish ‘Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias’ and the grant 1997 from the ‘Areces Foundation’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Haematology Service, University Hospital of Salamanca and Centre for Cancer Research of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    R López-Pérez, R García-Sanz, D González, A Balanzategui, MC Chillón, I Alaejos, MV Mateos, MD Caballero, M Corral, A Orfão, M González & JF San Miguel

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López-Pérez, R., García-Sanz, R., González, D. et al. Gene scanning of VDJH-amplified segments is a clinically relevant technique to detect contaminating tumor cells in the apheresis products of multiple myeloma patients undergoing autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 28, 665–672 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703219

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