Faster clinical decisions in B‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: A single flow cytometric 12‐colour tube improves diagnosis and minimal residual disease follow‐up

Abstract

SummaryAssessing minimal residual disease (MRD) in B‐cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (BCP‐ALL) is essential for adjusting therapeutic strategies and predicting relapse. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is the gold standard for MRD. Alternatively, flow cytometry is a quicker and cost‐effective method that typically uses leukaemia‐associated immunophenotype (LAIP) or different‐from‐normal (DFN) approaches for MRD assessment. This study describes an optimized 12‐colour flow cytometry antibody panel designed for BCP‐ALL diagnosis and MRD monitoring in a single tube. This method robustly differentiated hematogones and BCP‐ALL cells using two specific markers: CD43 and CD81. These and other markers (e.g. CD73, CD66c and CD49f) enhanced the specificity of BCP‐ALL cell detection. This innovative approach, based on a dual DFN/LAIP strategy with a principal component analysis method, can be used for all patients and enables MRD analysis even in the absence of a diagnostic sample. The robustness of our method for MRD monitoring was confirmed by the strong correlation (r = 0.87) with the qPCR results. Moreover, it simplifies and accelerates the preanalytical process through the use of a stain/lysis/wash method within a single tube (<2 h). Our flow cytometry‐based methodology improves the BCP‐ALL diagnosis efficiency and MRD management, offering a complementary method with considerable benefits for clinical laboratories.