| While patients with lymphoma often achieve clinical complete remission (CR), many of these patients ultimately relapse. The failure to achieve molecular remission is believed to be the cause of such relapse. Minimal residual disease (MRD) refers to the presence of malignant cells that are below the limit of detection using standard diagnostic techniques. As a result, many new techniques, among which is polymerase chain reaction (PCR), have greatly increased the sensitivity of detection of minimal residual malignant cells. The identification of chromosomal translocations and gene rearrangements in malignant cells has made the development of sensitive molecular techniques for the detection of MRD possible. The present study is intended to amplify clonal IgH rearrangements by PCR in three patients, to sequence these clonal rearrangements and to generate patient-specific oligonucleotide primers which will be used to assess the quality of peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) harvests that were reinfused in autologous transplantations following the administration of monocyte-derived growth factor (MDGF). |
