At the end of Induction Phase, a bone marrow aspiration is performed and the bone marrow sample is sent to a lab to be analyzed. Usually the result comes out in around 3 days. MRD -- Minimal Residual Disease is THE criterial current ALL protocols use to decide what treatments come next. MRD negative means there's no blasts (cancer cells) found in bone marrow (current technology detects < 0.1%) and the induction treatment achieved its goal to quickly induce the body into cancer-free stage.
So our Lucas will continue as high risk. Tonight we need to make decision on whether to participate clinical trials.
Great! I knew the disease would back off since Lucas is so brave!
ReplyDeleteBTW, when googling "MRD negative", I found this blog: http://beardsleys.blogspot.com/2008/07/mrd-negative.html.
ReplyDeleteThis is a girl with high risk ALL too. Now it's been 3 years, she has been treated completely!
Thanks a lot! She is in high risk for the same reason as Lucas. We will be able to get a lot from her blog even though the standard care has changed since then. Local Children's hospital gets 4-8 high risk ALL each year... so we felt quite special. :)
Delete