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Updated: Aug 18, 2026
Simultaneous Quantification of T-Cell Receptor Excision Circles (TRECs) and K-Deleting Recombination Excision Circles (KRECs) by Real-time PCR
Published on: December 6, 2014
Quantitative measurement of BCR/abl transcripts using real-time polymerase chain reaction
W I Lee1, H Kantarjian, A Glassman
1Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030, USA. mslee@mdanderson.org
Background:
Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (Q-Rt-PCR) is a new tool in the detection and quantification of the BCR/abl fusion transcripts in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). This study investigates its specificity, sensitivity and potential clinical usefulness.
Patients And Methods:
Parallel analysis of Q-Rt-PCR and the conventional reverse transcription-mediated PCR (RT-PCR) were performed on 567 samples from 481 patients. Treatment response was monitored by Q-Rt-PCR at 6 and 12 months of 61 patients on STI-571 and 103 patients on interferon.
Results:
The concordance rate between Q-Rt-PCR and RT-PCR was 96.3% (546/567), with 341 positives and 205 negatives. The positive equivalents ranged from 2 x 10(-6) to 1.2 microg of K562 cell RNA. Karyotyping in 372 samples revealed excellent correlation with Q-Rt-PCR measurements (P < 0.001). Setting residual BCR/abl < 0.01 as an early goal of molecular response, we observed that STI-571 induced a better response than interferon: 49% (20 of 41 patients) versus 35% (15 of 62 patients) at 6 months (P = 0.025) and 52% (32 of 61 patients) versus 34% (35 of 103 patients) at 12 months (P = 0.01), respectively.
Conclusions:
Q-Rt-PCR provides reliable measurements of BCR/abl fusion transcripts. It is potentially useful in assessing molecular residual disease after therapy.
