Scientific publications

Blood monitoring of circulating tumor plasma cells by next generation flow in multiple myeloma after therapy. Scientific Publication

Dec 2, 2019 | Magazine: Blood

Sanoja-Flores L (1,2,3,4,5), Flores-Montero J (1,2,3,4,5), Puig N (1,4,5,6), Contreras-Sanfeliciano T (7), Pontes R (8), Corral-Mateos A (1,2,3,4,5), García-Sánchez O (1,4,5,6), Díez-Campelo M (1,4,5,6), Pessoa de Magalhães RJ (9), García-Martín L (10), Alonso-Alonso JM (11), García-Mateo A (12), Aguilar-Franco C (13), Labrador J (14), Barez-García A (15), Maiolino A (9), Paiva B (4,16), San Miguel J (4,16), Sobral da Costa E (8), González M (1,4,5,6), Mateos MV (1,4,5,6), Durie B (17), van Dongen JJM (18), Orfao A (1,2,3,4,5).


In recent years, detection of circulating tumor plasma cells (CTPC), tumor cell–derived deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), RNA, or protein markers in blood has gained interest for disease monitoring in multiple myeloma (MM).1,2

This is mainly because of (1) the minimally invasive nature of blood vs bone marrow (BM) analyses, (2) the possibility for more precise quantification of absolute numbers of CTPC than BM minimal residual disease (MRD) resulting from absence of potential hemodilution, and (3) the (nonlinear) correlation observed between CTPC numbers and BM disease burden at diagnosis.1,3

Recently, we have shown by high-sensitivity next-generation flow (NGF) that CTPC are systematically present in blood of MM at diagnosis, with an adverse prognostic impact for higher counts.3

These results highlight the relevance of greater levels of disease dissemination via blood in conferring a malignant behavior to MM, suggesting the presence of blood CTPC might be required for subsequent disease progression of treated MM patients.

CITATION  Blood. 2019 Dec 12;134(24):2218-2222. doi: 10.1182/blood.2019002610