Dr. Dino PratoEnvita Medical Centers · Founder and CEO at Envita Medical Centers

Minimal residual disease might be the reason cancer comes back #shorts

16 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this short video, Dino Prato, NMD explains that many people mistakenly think blood cancer returns because chemotherapy stops working. He clarifies that while treatment can dramatically reduce tumor burden and improve scans and blood counts, a tiny population of cancer cells—known as minimal residual disease (MRD)—often remains undetected. These hidden cells can later reactivate, causing relapse. Prato emphasizes that true success in blood‑cancer therapy isn’t merely achieving remission; it’s the complete eradication of MRD, which should be the ultimate treatment goal.

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Most people think blood cancer comes back because the chemo stopped working, but here's what often is really happening. The large burden gets knocked down, the scans look better, and the blood counts look better, and then it's back. Not because the patient didn't fight hard enough, but because they didn't see something, something that was already there. It's called minimal residual disease. Minimal residual disease means a tiny number of cancer cells are still in the body after treatment, and those hidden cells can wake up later and restart the whole cancer with blood cancers. So the real finish line in the blood cancer is not just remission. The real finish line is to erase minimal residual disease.