Dr. Goy on Bendamustine Plus Cytarabine as MCL Treatment

Andre Goy, MD, MS, chairman and director, chief of Lymphoma, and director of Clinical and Translational Cancer Research at John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the efficacy of bendamustine plus cytarabine as treatment for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

Bendamustine and cytarabine combined for a less toxic chemotherapy regimen is also being explored in the MCL patient population, Goy explains. However, the 800-mg dose of cytarabine was still found to be too toxic for patients in the real-world setting and too difficult to tolerate. However, data presented at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting that looked at the 500-mg dose of cytarabine plus bendamustine was found to have an improved tolerability profile and had an impressive complete response rate. This does need longer follow-up, he adds, but it could potentially be a new standard of care for these patients.

Also in the relapsed/refractory setting, a variety of novel agents are approved, Goy says. These include ibrutinib (Imbruvica), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and bortezomib (Velcade). In addition, temsirolimus (Torisel) is approved in Europe.