Flow cytometric minimal residual disease monitoring in patients with multiple myeloma undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation: A retrospective study

We retrospectively reviewed the flow cytometry (FCM) data from bone marrow aspirates of multiple myeloma (MM) patients before and after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Light scatter properties and CD38 expression were used to identify plasma cells, and CD19/CD45/CD56 further distinguished normal from abnormal plasma cells (NPC and APC, respectively), the latter defined as plasma cells with aberrant CD56, decreased or absent CD19 and/or CD45 expression. Forty-seven patients were screened. After ASCT, 66% (31/47) patients achieved complete remission (CR)/very good partial remission (VGPR), as compared to only 40% (19/47) prior to ASCT (P=0.01). In 39 patients with data before and after ASCT, all 39 (100%) had a detectable APC population prior to ASCT. Twenty-six out of 39 patients (67%) also had detectable NPC. Following ASCT, the number of patients with detectable NPC increased to 35/39 (89%), while 3/39 (8%) had no detectable NPC and 1/39 (3%) had neither NPC nor APC. The proportion of APC decreased significantly after transplant from a median of 79% to 52% post-transplant (P0.001). The APC/total events ratio decreased significantly (P0.0001) after transplant. Prior to transplant, patients with less than 1.8% APC had significantly longer progression free survival (PFS) than patients with greater than 1.8% (P=0.017, by log rank test), while the difference in overall survival did not achieve statistical significance (P=0.081). Patients who achieved CR/VGPR after transplant had significantly longer PFS in comparison to all others (26 months vs. 11 months, P=0.004). In conclusion, the detection of a significant population of APC by FCM prior to ASCT significantly correlates with poorer PFS in MM patients.