Fast PCR based therapeutic follow-up of T-cell malignancies

Available methods for the detection of minimal residual disease in T-cell malignancies are limited by their poor sensitivity and/or by their complexity. With the aim of avoiding these drawbacks, we used the Fast PCR technique in order to amplify V delta 1-(D delta 1)-(D delta 2)-J delta 1 and V gamma I family-J gamma junctional sequences from nucleated cells of boiled bone marrow. We were thus able to detect malignant T-cells down to a dilution of 1 in 665 nucleated marrow cells, in less than 4 hours after sampling. This new quantitative method is promising for monitoring therapy and detecting early disease relapse in T-lymphoproliferative disease, since it is 2 to 35 fold more sensitive than Southern blotting.