Dr. Younes on the Implications of Ibrutinib's Approval for MCL

Anas Younes, MD, chief, Lymphoma Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the implications of ibrutinib’s approval for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

The approval of ibrutinib represents great news for patients with MCL, Younes says, as they previously had no additional options once they failed their first induction therapy. Most patients with MCL are over age 65 and are therefore not candidates for transplant. These patients were previously treated with some sort of induction chemotherapy like R-CHOP followed by rituximab maintenance therapy. Once these patients failed those therapies, there were limited options.

Before ibrutinib, younger patients with MCL previously had no valid option following relapse from transplant and induction therapy, which are incorporated into one package.

Ibrutinib is beneficial to patients with MCL as it is an oral drug that has demonstrated a durable response rate with minimal side effects.