Dr. Gerson on the Watch-and-Wait Approach in MCL

James N. Gerson, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, discusses the watch-and-wait approach for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

The standard of care for patients with newly diagnosed MCL is induction chemotherapy followed by consolidative transplant if patients are eligible, says Gerson.

However, asymptomatic patients with low tumor burden and favorable prognostic markers like low Ki67 and unmutated p53 may not require immediate treatment.

Though, unlike follicular lymphoma where patients have the potential for spontaneous remission, the majority of patients with MCL will eventually need treatment. According to Gerson, emerging evidence suggests that patients with MCL who undergo a period of observation may not need to be treated the same way as patients who begin treatment at diagnosis. These data are pending but may shed light on optimal treatment strategies for patients who delay treatment.