11% is too much

On June 22, BJ had a bone marrow biopsy. It marked one month from his relapse diagnosis. We have been hoping that the past month of induction cycle chemo had wiped out most (preferably all) of the blast cells in his marrow.

At his relapse, 70% of his marrow were blast cells, and after a month of chemo, his MRD (minimum residual disease) is now 11%.

This was very disappointing news. To put this in perspective, at his initial diagnosis in 2012, his marrow contained 96% blast cells. After his first induction cycle back then, his MRD was 0.09%. 

The level of 0.09% put him in a very high risk category for relapse. The original 0.09% of leukemia blast cells that didn’t get killed by the chemo are the cells responsible for the relapse.