A total of 71 newly diagnosed MM patients screened at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and with simultaneously available information on CD19 and CD81 immunophenotypic patterns of expression and GEP were included in this analysis. An aliquot of BM aspirate was collected to isolate CD138+ PCs with immunomagnetic bead selection (autoMACS; Miltenyi Biotec, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany), as described elsewhere.25 (link) Purity of PC was monitored by flow cytometry and was ≥ 85%. Total RNA was used to measure GEP with Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 microarrays. Differentially expressed genes between classes were identified using the Significant Analysis of Microarrays algorithm. Analyses were performed using BRB-ArrayTools (version 4.4.1) developed by Dr Richard Simon and the BRB-ArrayTools Development Team, available at http://linus.nci.nih.gov/BRB-ArrayTools.html.