Dr. Peter Hillmen on minimal residual disease, MRD ...Patient Power Video

[Cllcanada]

How do you and your doctor know your chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatment is working? Right now, highly sensitive tests measure minimal residual disease (MRD). As treatments improve, this test is becoming more important than ever to continually increase their effectiveness. Noted CLL expert Dr. Peter Hillmen talked with Patient Power about this at the 9th European Congress on Hematologic Malignancies in Lyon, France.

patientpower.info/video/min...

[HAIRBEAR_UK Founder Admin]

Thanks Chris,

It is very interesting that using MRD as an end point could speed up the trial process. It was at the CLLSA Middlesex meeting in September that researchers Timothy Farren and Dr Samir Agrawal discussed with us their more sensitive MRD testing methods and surrogates that improve the efficiency and sensitivity over current tests.

Autumn newsletter: cllsupport.org.uk/news_arch...

CD160 is being used diagnostically for CLL at St Bartholomew’s. It is also being used to determine MRD status (Minimum Residual Disease levels following treatment, to measure how deep the remission is). They have discovered all CLL cells express CD160. They have created an alternative assay (test) that they say is potentially ten times more sensitive than the current assay to determine MRD levels. Furthermore, from a practical point of view, their assay is a simpler test, requiring fewer components to the test and less complicated data analysis, leading to reduced cost. Future research will need to investigate if MRD testing during treatment could guide the duration of therapy (ie, it could potentially be used to shorten treatment, reducing toxicity).

[jangreen]

Hi I was very interested in the video as the trial that I went on (FRC + M) at Barts is collated at Leeds (probably by this professor). The M aims to reduce MRD. So its a question of wait and see for me.