What does it mean to be MRD positive? What does this mean for my long term outcomes?

What does it mean to be MRD positive? So what does it mean to be MRD positive? So first it's important to note that we only really test MRD for patients who otherwise look like they're in remission. So first we're talking about a patient who under the microscope, the bone marrow looks to be in remission, meaning that the blast percentage or the AML cells are generally less than 5%. And then we can look to determine whether they might be MRD positive or MRD negative. So MRD positive just refers to the fact that even though they look like they're in remission under the microscope with visual inspection, by some other testing we can detect evidence of residual leukemia. So in general this does translate to a higher risk of relapse, but it's important to note that not everybody who's MRD positive will necessarily relapse in the future. It really depends on whether they receive additional therapy or also sometimes we recommend a stem cell transplant for those patients who have persistent MRD positivity, meaning persistent disease despite their initial treatment.