Dr. Nowakowski on Biological Heterogeneity in Newly Diagnosed Patients With MCL

Grzegorz S. Nowakowski, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic, discusses the desire to use biological heterogeneity as a factor for treatment in newly diagnosed patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

One factor that he is not yet taking into consideration but would like to is biological heterogeneity of the disease, Nowakowski explains. There are some patients with relatively indolent disease progressing over the years, while other patients have rapidly progressive MCL. The vast majority of patients come right in the middle, he adds. Having a biologic prognostic factor would help predict the clinical course of those patients, as it would assist physicians in selecting the most appropriate therapy for them.

A certain attempt is being made with the NanoString platform in conjunction with the MCL55 assay, which uses gene expression profiling from paraffin-embedded tissue.