People on various combination trials are tested for MRD after a few months of treatment. I wonder if anyone of you has been tested with NGS (Next Generation Sequencing). NGS is supposed to be a lot more precise when assessing MRD negative status.
I know it has a cost that might not be covered by the trial or insurance. Nonetheless we only need a few CLL cells left to relapse and I think it would make sense to use NGS to have a deeper analysis in the blood and bone marrow.
I am very interested to know about anyone's experience with NGS, if any and also to find out how much better NGS is compared to flow cytometry or what other technology is used today to assess MRD status.
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lamboman
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NGS not in the clinic.. actually MRD negative isn't either outside CLL research hospitals. Some private companies run NGS ...privately for patients...
The primary role for MRD in my view will be to separate out patients for more individualized treatments.. then perhaps it will be be used post treatment to look at the results and see what conal evolution has or is, taking place...
3 1/2 years ago I asked the Community hematologist/oncologist that was treating me to test me for MRD at 2 months post BR treatment. She did and insurance paid for it. I was tested at .01% in bone marrow. Right at cusp of MRD-. I’m still not sure why she agreed or why insurance paid.
I had a similar conversation with Dr. Furman on Nov 6- last week, when I asked his opinion on MRD U6 - (for further details here is a previous conversation):
(He had some developmental testing done on my blood in 2012 by Cancer Genetics Inc. when they were developing their Focus CLL testing cancergenetics.com/laborato...
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Dr. Furman commented that Weill Cornell is now doing MRD testing in house, but that he had concerns about the reliability/utility of results beyond 10 to the 4th. And that several different approaches were competing, but he did not see a clear leader or strong justification as yet, to show clinical significance of the test results. He wants to gather more information to decide whether having MRD neg at U6 means something significantly different than at U4, and whether he can use either one to change treatment plans for a specific patient.
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