RT-qPCR versus Digital PCR: How Do They Impact Differently on Clinical Management of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients?

We present the case of a CML patient enrolled both in a study aiming to comparatively assess molecular response by RT-qPCR and dPCR and in the progressive arm of the OPTkIMA trial. T his is a phase III trial including CML patients randomized to receive a fixed versus a progressive intermittent tyrosine kinase inhibitor regimen. At 24 months, because of two consecutive detections of MR2.0 by RT-qPCR, the patient resumed daily treatment. Conversely, dPCR revealed a stability of molecular response and even a slight decreasing of transcript over time. An additional specimen was sampled one month after the first MR2.0 detection because of clinical decision: RT-qPCR resulted MR3.0 and dPCR confirmed the transcript ’s stability. Nowadays, the resumption of therapy is RT-qPCR-driven despite its limits in detection and robustness. In this case, according to dPCR, the patient could have continued intermittent treatment and the stability of response was then confirmed by RT-qPCR. So, dPCR could be able to better identify peculiar clinical response to therapy.Case Rep Oncol 2020;13:1263 –1269
Source: Case Reports in Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research