Dr. Zelenetz on Current Treatment Options for MCL

Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, medical director of Quality Informatics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses approved treatment options for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), as well as treatments coming down the pipeline.

MCL is a rare subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Approximately 4,000 cases are diagnosed in the United States every year, says Zelenetz. As such, therapeutic development has been slow compared with other lymphomas.

Although bortezomib (Velcade) is currently approved in the relapsed/refractory setting, treatment-emergent neuropathy has limited its clinical application, says Zelenetz.

The combination of lenalidomide (Revlimid) and rituximab (Rituxan) has also shown significant activity in this setting. MCL has also been shown to be a good target for BTK inhibitors which are downstream of several signaling pathways in MCL.

Further, data regarding the use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and acalabrutinib (Calquence) in the frontline setting are maturing. These data are pending, but researchers believe the addition of these drugs to standard therapy such as R-CHOP may be beneficial.