An Italian Multicentre Study Using Different Digital Pcr Instruments On Bcr-Abl1 Positive Patients At Different Levels Of Cml Disease

Background: Monitoring of BCR-ABL1 levels by quantitative PCR (qPCR) is essential for the management of CML patients treated with TKIs. Because of intrinsic limits, qPCR does not appear to be an optimal tool to quantify transcript levels around 10% and very low levels of disease. Digital PCR (dPCR), thanks to its intrinsic features, is expected to be more accurate than qPCR in the assessment of molecular MRD as demonstrated in different studies (Huang et al 2015, Franke et al, 2015). In order to hypothesize the use of this new technology in the clinical practice, a standardization process is mandatory.