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Reply to the letter from von Stackelberg et al

Leukemia volume 18, pages 1728–1729 (2004)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

We thank von Stackelberg et al1 for their comments. We agree that minimal residual disease (MRD) is emerging as a reliable predictor of outcome in children with first relapse ALL, although some fine tuning to define the optimal time points and cutoff levels to use in each protocol may be necessary. In our series2, MRD at the end of remission induction was particularly informative in patients who relapsed off-therapy; in our current protocol for first relapse ALL, patients with ‘high risk’ features are candidates for transplant irrespective of MRD findings. This is in line with the BFM concepts mentioned by von Stackelberg et al.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology-Oncology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, 332 North Lauderdale, Memphis, 38105-2794, TN, USA

    E Coustan-Smith & D Campana

  2. Department of Pathology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, 332 North Lauderdale, Memphis, 38105-2794, TN, USA

    D Campana

  3. University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Memphis, TN, USA

    D Campana

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  1. E Coustan-Smith
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Coustan-Smith, E., Campana, D. Reply to the letter from von Stackelberg et al. Leukemia 18, 1728–1729 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403477

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