St. Jude develops more affordable leukemia test

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., March 29 - St. Jude investigators have developed a relatively simple and inexpensive test that identifies children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who have responded well enough to their first round of chemotherapy that they might be successfully treated with a much less aggressive follow-up treatment.

The new test could give hospitals with limited resources an affordable way to improve the outcomes of acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatments for many children by reducing chemotherapy side effects, according to a news release.

The test measures minimal residual disease (MRD) - the small number of leukemic cells that survive after remission induction therapy, the release said.

The high cost and complexity of the more sophisticated MRD tests have been major obstacles to their use in countries with limited resources, officials said.

St. Jude is now implementing this new test at a partner institution in Brazil. The pilot project in Recife, Brazil, aims to identify children who have MRD levels low enough that they can be treated with therapy that is less intense than the standard treatment.

Previously, 10% of the children receiving standard therapy suffered fatal infections caused by the aggressive treatment, the release said.

Based in Memphis, St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world.

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