minimal residual disease

A term used to describe a very small number of cancer cells that remain in the body during or after treatment. Minimal residual disease can be found only by highly sensitive laboratory methods that are able to find one cancer cell among one million normal cells. Checking to see if there is minimal residual disease may help plan treatment, find out how well treatment is working or if cancer has come back, or make a prognosis. Minimal residual disease testing is used mostly for blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia. Also called MRD.