02/08/2022 - 2022

Earlier and more accurate prediction of cancer relapse – with the Mediator Probe Technology

Researchers from the University of Freiburg, the Charité and Hahn-Schickard present a new workflow and guidelines for improved monitoring of cancer relapse in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

ALL is a malignant disease characterized by the uncontrolled proliferation of immature white blood cells in the bone marrow, which is most common in children. In order to minimize the risk of an ALL relapse after or during therapy, it is important to detect in an early stage whether there is a resurgence of cancer cells via so-called minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring. For this purpose, a new multiplex real-time PCR method has been developed, which precisely detects the DNA of cancer cells: The personalized MRD mediator probe PCR (MRD-MP-PCR).

Here, MRD-MP-PCR measures multiple genomic cancer cell markers in a single assay, improving e.g. the monitoring of clonal tumor evolution and avoiding false-negative results. In initial testing using DNA from bone marrow samples of ALL patients, the MRD-MP-PCRs met EuroMRD gold standard guidelines. Clinical validation of the test system is currently in progress.  

The Mediator Probe PCR was developed at the University of Freiburg and patented in 2012. Further development into a personalized MRD-MP-PCR was achieved in in the joint projects IRMA-4-ALL (BMBF/ 01EK1508B) and PRIMO (Ministry of Economics, Labor and Housing Baden-Württemberg/ 3-4332.62-HSG/84).

Kipf et al.: Advanced Minimal Residual Disease Monitoring for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia with Multiplex Mediator Probe PCR. Volume 24, ISSUE 1, P57-68, January 01, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoldx.2021.10.001