Gene expression profiling of elderly newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients included in the HOVON87/NMSG-18 clinical trial

This gene expression set contains data from 180 patients included in the HOVON-87/NMSG-18 clinical trial. Using this data the SKY92 classifier was validated in the elderly newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients (median age = 72). Additional to its proven value in younger patients, the MMprofiler?s SKY92 classifier was found to be a robust marker of high risk patients in the elderly MM population. Bone marrow aspirates were processed by CD138 based magnetic bead sorting (Stem Cell Technologies) to a purity of >80% plasma cells. Purified cells are prepared for RNA isolation using Qiagen RLTplus buffer (Qiagen). Samples were collected and processed by the central labs in The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden (as part of the HOVON-NMSG collaboration). RNA sample workup was performed according to the instructions for use of the MMprofilers at the SkylineDx reference lab (SkylineDx, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) . Samples were hybridized to Affymetrix HG-U133 plus2 chips, using Affymetrix Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) GPR reagent for samples obtained in 2014 or earlier (n = 87), and Affymetrix 3' IVT PLUS reagents for samples obtained after 2014 (n = 93). All samples passed wet lab and data QC acceptance criteria. Gene expressions were MAS5.0 normalized (values below 30 were truncated) with a target value of 1500. The MMprofiler CE IVD assay was used to obtain SKY92 scores, classifying a patient as high risk or standard risk.