Dr. Dean Discusses Ongoing Research on Biomarkers in MCL

Robert Dean, MD, a staff physician at Cleveland Clinic, discusses ongoing research on biomarkers in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

There is a lot of interest in investigating biomarkers in MCL, explains Dean, as there is a high degree of genomic instability. Cyclin D1 translocation is one of the hallmarks of the disease, says Dean, and is known to be a common point of origin for lymphoma cells.

However, additional acquired mutations are also part of the biology of the disease, Dean explains. Physicians do not yet have great insight on how to use individual specific secondary mutations to predict outcome or select treatments, with the exception of p53 mutations, which are almost universally a poor prognostic indicator. Patients who harbor a p53 mutation may stand to benefit from a more aggressive third-line treatment if they received and progressed on a BTK inhibitor after frontline treatment, Dean concludes.