Hi
thanks in advance for any replays. I am a 33 year old female who was diagnosed 8 years ago was on imatinib until 2015 then switched to nilotinib in 2015 since then I have been undetectable.
yesterday I received a call to say my results were at 0.003
should I be worried? Doctor wasn't much help just wants to repeat
the only factor was that the sample had been left lying round for 3 days she said
i am so distraught completely ruined my weekend
thanks
hannah
Hi Hannah,
I wouldn’t be distraught at all. 0.003% is MR4.5 - a really deep response.
There are several reasons why you may have got this result. It could even be as simple as an upgrade to the lab machinery, and they are able to test your blood in a more detailed way now.
Undetectable doesn’t mean “not there” ... if every single cell was tested, there would always be some showing BCR-Abl (even in the general population, BCR-Abl can be observed every now and then without the person having CML).
Frankly, I am suspicious of labs that continually report “undetectable” - it may just be that they are not looking hard enough.
David.
Hi, Hannah, I know how you feel. I have my PCR done at the Mayo Clinic and they just lowered their sensitivity to .003 for BCR/ABL. My most recent report came back at <.003 and it was still reported as positive. Very disingenuous in my book! 
But David is right, that is a very, very good response. My oncologist said as time goes on these tests will become more and more sensitive and no one will make the undetectable grade! Good luck!
