Dr. Goy on the Role of MRD in Mantle Cell Lymphoma

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 role of minimal residual disease (MRD) in the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

According to Goy, the role of MRD is going to become much more of a target, with more and more trials looking at MRD as an endpoint, and oncologists customizing treatment based not just on number of years or months of treatment, but based on MRD status, as well.

The integration of MRD into clinical trials represents a way to make sure patients achieve the best possible responses, he explains. Achieving an MRD-negative status is very critical because it shows that the patient has a very deep response, which translates into an overall better outcome. Goy expects that this role for MRD will be applied across multiple cancer subtypes, particularly in hematologic malignancies. This is important because oncologists are striving to develop therapies that can be stopped, and they need to know when a therapy can be halted and then later reinitiated. Goy says this also holds great importance in terms of the cost of care in the treatment of these patients.