PCR Assessment of Minimal Residual Disease in 8 Lymphoma-Affected Dogs

Retrospective monitoring of minimal residual disease using hairpin-shaped clone specific primers in B-cell lymphoma affected dogs

Lymphoma is one of the most common forms of cancer in dogs as it is in humans but, unlike humans, the cure rates in canines are still very low. Despite the fact that high grade B-cell lymphomas are considered to be chemotherapy responsive, almost all treated dogs ultimately relapse and die due to the residual malignant lymphocytes, namely minimal residual disease (MRD). It would be extremely valuable for clinicians to detect, monitor and quantify MRD for risk group stratification, effective treatment intervention and outcome prediction. The PCRs targeting the Ig gene rearrangements constitute one of the most reliable tools to this end. We have recently validated a method which exploits hairpin-shaped primers for quantifying MRD. In the present study, that method is conveniently used for retrospectively monitoring MRD in the peripheral blood of 8 dogs diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma who underwent chemotherapy. All dogs attained complete remission. The median disease-free interval was 254.5 days (range 63-774) while the median survival time was 313.5 days (range 143-817 days). At admission, all dogs, except one which had already been treated with prednisone, had circulating neoplastic cells. All dogs attained complete remission (CR) which was almost always matched with a complete MRD response. The persistence of MRD despite apparent CR indicated a worse prognosis and a short duration of CR. Finally, the relapse is consistently anticipated by the reappearance of MRD in the peripheral blood. The study confirmed the suitability of an MRD monitoring assay as a clinical decision-making tool.

The staging and treatment of multicentric high-grade lymphoma in dogs: a review of recent developments and future prospects

In recent years, considerable progress has been made in understanding the biology of canine lymphoma with resultant enhanced classification schemes and the possibility of individualised, tailored therapies. However, although complete remission may be achieved using multi-agent chemotherapy, the mortality rate from this neoplasm remains high. This review focuses on the staging of high-grade multicentric lymphoma in the dog, on conventional and novel treatment strategies (including chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation, radiation therapy and molecular-targeted agents), and on the management of relapsed or refractory cases.

Quantitative assessment of minimal residual disease (MRD) in canine lymphoma by using real-time polymerase chain reaction

Lymphoma is the most common hematopoietic malignancy in dogs. Although a large proportion of dogs with lymphoma can achieve clinical remission by initial chemotherapy, most dogs die as a consequence of tumor relapse. We established a quantitative detection system for minimal residual disease (MRD) in canine lymphoma by using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A canine T-cell lymphoma-derived cell line, namely, UL-1, was used to examine the specificity and sensitivity of the MRD detecting system. Allele-specific oligonucleotide primers and probes were designed based on the sequence of T-cell receptor gamma chain (TCRgamma) gene fragment of UL-1 cells in conjunction with its downstream sequence, which were obtained from the dog genome database. The real-time PCR system for plasmid DNA containing the TCRgamma gene derived from UL-1 cells and the genomic DNA of UL-1 cells revealed that the system was accurate for 10-100,000 copies per reaction and its sensitivity was 1 cell per 10,000 cells. In order to monitor the kinetics of tumor cell number in canine lymphoma, we quantified the level of MRD in the peripheral blood of 7 dogs with lymphoma under chemotherapy. Since the lymphoma cells from the 7 patients were shown to be B-cell origin from the finding of clonal rearrangement of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) gene, allele-specific oligonucleotide primers and probes were prepared based on the sequence of rearranged IgH gene in each case. The number of peripheral blood tumor cells measured by the real-time PCR was comparable to that estimated by conventional hematological examination in 2 cases of stage V lymphoma. MRD in the peripheral blood was detectable in all 7 cases, even in the complete remission (CR) phase. In the 7 lymphoma dogs, changes in the MRD levels of peripheral blood generally paralleled with the changes in the volumes of lymph nodes. Molecular CR, in which the MRD level was below the detection limit, was not observed in any of these 7 patients under chemotherapy. The MRD level detected by the real-time PCR method described here would be useful for investigating the kinetics of tumor cell growth and its regression in canine lymphoma patients.