Hematology Reports
Utility of Flow Cytometry in Bone Marrow-Involved Non-Hematological Malignancies
By Osamu Imataki, Akihiro Takeuchi and Makiko Uemura.
Abstract
Background
The presence of cancer cells in the bone marrow can cause blood cell abnormalities; when bone marrow metastasis is suspected, aspiration is performed to test for hematological disorders. However, the usefulness of combining cell surface markers with flow cytometry analysis (FCM) in this situation has not been verified.
Methods
To review the clinical efficacy of FCM for detecting bone marrow involvement in cancer patients, we searched articles in PubMed using the keywords [bone marrow involvement] × [flow cytometry] among cancer types. To present an example case, we examined the bone marrow of cancer patients with cytopenia and analyzed the characteristics of the cell surface antigens. Bone marrow aspiration was performed from the iliac bone, and smear specimens were examined using May–Giemsa staining. We used a Beckman Coulter NAVIOS for FCM analysis and routine panels of myeloid and lymphoid neoplasms for surface marker analysis.