How Minimal Residual Disease Assessment Emerged as an Important Tool for Blood Cancers

Obviously, minimal residual disease can have an enormous role in a patient’s long-term treatment. When treating lymphoma patients, for example, doctors may think that a patient is cancer free when in actuality a patient may have remaining traces of cancer in their body. If these cells are left in a patient’s body, then the odds of relapse increase enormously. Additionally, because lymphoma can often develop an immunity to primary treatment methods, the cells that are left may develop into a form of cancer that will be more difficult to treat once it surfaces again. While there could still be a small number of cells that developed an immunity to a patient’s initial treatment, it’s always better to catch these earlier on in order to attempt alternate methods.