Dr. Leslie Discusses Advancements in Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Lori A. Leslie, MD, lymphoma attending, John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses advancements in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

There are a number of clinical trials currently ongoing in MCL. Challenges remain with certain subgroups, Leslie says, particularly patients who have p53 abnormalities, and older patients who cannot tolerate intensive upfront therapy or transplant.

Leslie says that this is a great opportunity for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to have a role in MCL treatment, as it has shown promising efficacy in heavily pretreated patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The ongoing ZUMA-2 trial is investigating the use of the anti-CD19 CAR T-cell product axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) in patients with relapsed/refractory MCL. Axi-cel is currently approved for select patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. That approval was based on the objective response rate from the phase II portion of the ZUMA-1 study.

Additionally, an important area of research is individualizing maintenance or consolidation therapy for patients who remain minimal residual disease-positive after induction therapy, Leslie says.