Mrd Evaluation By Pet/Ct According To Deauville Criteria Combined With Multiparameter Flow Cytometry In Newly Diagnosed Transplant Eligible Multiple Myeloma (Mm) Patients Enrolled In The Phase Ii Randomized Forte Trial

Background: 18F-FDG-PET/CT is currently the standard technique to define minimal residual disease (MRD) status outside the bone marrow (BM) in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. A joined analysis of two prospective randomized trials in newly diagnosed transplant-eligible MM (NDTEMM) patients applied for the first time the Deauville Scores (DS) to focal lesions (FS) and bone marrow uptake (BMS) and showed the liver background (DS < 4) to be the best cut-off to define PET negativity after therapy (Zamagni et al, ASH 2018). Multiparameter Flow cytometry (MFC) at the sensitivity level of 10-5 is one of the standardized methods to assess MRD in the BM (Kumar SK, Lancet Oncol 2016). In this analysis, we aimed at comparing MRD data by PET/TC assessment and MFC in the multicenter phase II randomized FORTE trial for NDTEMM patients.