Dr. Goy on BR Plus Bortezomib for 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 combination of bendamustine and rituximab (Rituxan; BR) plus bortezomib (Velcade) as a potential treatment for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

BR has been administered often in elderly patient population with MCL, as it is easier to tolerate and is also noninferior to the standard R-CHOP regimen. Now, in earlier studies, the combination of BR plus bortezomib has demonstrated a complete response rate of more than 50%, Goy explains.

This has led to the initiation of an ongoing randomized trial BR plus bortezomib followed by rituximab maintenance therapy. This is a way to hopefully bring a novel agent into the frontline setting, Goy explains.