Dr. Andreadis on Treatment Approaches in Relapsed MCL

Charalambos (Babis) Andreadis, MD, MSCE, associate professor of clinical medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the need to identify an optimal standard of care in patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

Multiple intensive therapies including autologous stem cell transplantation may be used up front for patients with untreated MCL to elicit a favorable response. However, few options exist for patients upon relapse, explains Andreadis.

Currently, BTK inhibition with ibrutinib (Imbruvica) or a similar agent may be used, says Andreadis. Ongoing clinical trials also suggest that proteasome inhibitors like carfilzomib (Kyprolis) and bortezomib (Velcade) may have activity in this space.

Patients with relapsed disease who respond to treatment should be considered for allogeneic transplant. However, the introduction of a novel agent into this space could mitigate the increased toxicity associated with allogeneic transplant, concludes Andreadis.