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IMS 2026 | Circulating tumor cells and MRD monitoring in multiple myeloma
Luca Bertamini, MD, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands, discusses how circulating tumor cell (CTC) assessment could complement measurable residual disease (MRD) testing in multiple myeloma. He highlights the greater sensitivity of bone marrow MRD while noting that blood-based CTC monitoring could reduce the need for repeated marrow assessments. This interview took place at the 23rd International Myeloma Society (IMS) Annual Meeting in Glasgow, UK.
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Transcript
I think this is really an important point. So CTCs are not going to compete with MRD to try to replace MRD because it’s pretty clear from the data that we are collecting right now that MRD in the marrow is the majority of times superior to peripheral blood. And this is just a matter of how many cells there are, how many tumor cells there are in the blood compared to the marrow. It’s generally 100 times less...
I think this is really an important point. So CTCs are not going to compete with MRD to try to replace MRD because it’s pretty clear from the data that we are collecting right now that MRD in the marrow is the majority of times superior to peripheral blood. And this is just a matter of how many cells there are, how many tumor cells there are in the blood compared to the marrow. It’s generally 100 times less. So either we really acquire a lot of samples from patients, which is probably not convenient, or CTCs will generally be less sensitive. But taking a blood sample is very simple. So what we can do, and the way potentially CTCs can be really complementary to bone marrow is, for example, between marrow evaluations every one year or so, a patient can be monitored using peripheral blood, and that can save a lot of marrow aspirates and a lot of pain for patients, can be easier, and can be also something that we can really do much more in the clinic.
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