General Objectives

1. Improve and standardize quality-assured MRD-assessment (necessary for proper treatment selection upon assessment of leukaemic response parameters) throughout the international-BFM FCM-network for the benefit of children with ALL in many countries.
2. Reduce work-load and lab-costs (staff-time needed for training, continuous quality control, operator-based data interpretation).
3. Allow dissemination of (automated) FCM-MRD analysis to medical centres which have no established expertise – for the benefit of an even larger community of diseased children worldwide.

Scientific Objectives

1. Develop and validate a pipeline-software package as a ready-to-use FCM-based MRD-assessment tool for the daily clinical practice for patients with ALL: FCM-MRD assessment is a cornerstone in risk stratification and treatment selection in several current paediatric ALL therapy regimens.
2. Augment correct assessment of FCM-MRD in samples which are difficult to analyse by conventional operator-based gating (e.g. ≥8-color applications); computer-aided analysis potentially has a superior resolution due to utilization of the whole multi-parametric FCM-data space at once instead of step-wise, two-dimensional plot-based visualization.
3. Reduce subjectivity caused by manual operator gating; increase result comparability and reproducibility through automation and standardization.