There is no defined standard of care associated with MRD status and there is no standard approach for MRD testing. Some methods (e.g. SPEP, IFE) are accessible but not sensitive; others (e.g. flow cytometry, NGS) are sensitive, but require bone marrow aspiration. To overcome these challenges and to complement other approaches, mass spectrometry-based assays have been developed to monitor the presence of monoclonal immunoglobulin (M-Protein) in the serum of patients. Of the mass spectrometry-based techniques, the clonotypic peptide approach (i.e. monitoring the patient-specific sequence) is considered to be more sensitive than monitoring the intact light chain. EasyM is the first assay to overcome the challenges of throughput, speed, and applicability of the clonotypic peptide mass spectrometry-based technique.

For an overview of MRD monitoring in Multiple Myeloma, we recommend
Kostopoulos et al., Minimal Residual Disease in Multiple Myeloma: Current Landscape and Future Applications With Immunotherapeutic Approaches. Front Oncol. 2020 May 27;10:860. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.00860. PMID: 32537439; PMCID: PMC7267070.

For clinical collaborations
The Multiple Myeloma community benefits from exploration of MRD techniques using real-world clinical data. If you are interested in collaborating with us on a paper or publication to explore the utility, comparative strengths, and the applicability of MRD monitoring techniques for clinical decisions and outcomes, please contact us.