Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Tecartus was the first CAR-T cell therapy to be approved for the treatment of recurrent mantle cell lymphoma. Now, more than a year after its approval, a doctor discusses his experience prescribing the drug.

Patients who are immunocompromised, such as patients with blood cancers, may get the boosted immunity needed to reduce their risk for contracting COVID-19 and hospitalization for compilations related to the virus.

Some patients with mantle cell lymphoma can opt for a wait-and-watch approach, while others will need more aggressive treatment.

About 25% of patients with blood cancer did not produce antibodies after being vaccinated against COVID-19.

When patients with mantle cell lymphoma are discussing the use of a BTK inhibitor, they must consider what their insurance will cover, as well as current health complications and potential side effects.

Patients can now prioritize whether durable responses to treatment or avoiding certain side effects are more valuable to them.

Patients with mantle cell lymphoma whose disease relapses within a year and a half of transplant tend to have worse outcomes and may want to consider new treatment regimens.

The Food and Drug Administration granted a breakthrough therapy designation to a new drug that can be used to treat patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

Research found discrepancies between treatment recommended by clinical trial results and treatment that is typically given to patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

Researchers observed no difference in overall and progression-free survival in patients with mantle cell lymphoma who started high-intensity treatment at least 90 days after receiving a diagnosis compared with a non-intensive therapy approach.

Factors including progression-free survival, duration of response and overall survival were promising at 15 months in patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma.

A high intensity immunochemotherapy with maintenance therapy led to 93.2% of patients achieving a complete response and 55.6% of patients with progression-free survival at five years.

Researchers found that patients who were never married, had lower educational levels or had comorbidities were less likely to be suggested an autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation, which may underline a need for more informed decision making.

Pirtobrutinib was safe and effective in treating patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, small lymphocytic lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma and Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, some of whom developed intolerance or resistance to previous covalent BTK inhibitors.

A meta-analysis found that minimal residual disease positivity after a particular treatment for mantle cell lymphoma can predict worse survival benefit.

A roundup of some of the most read news and updates in mantle cell lymphoma in 2020 from CURE®.

This treatment, which included dexamethasone, high-dose cytarabine and cisplatin, was well tolerated in this patient population, although longer-term follow-up is needed to see if the benefit persists.

Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), as described in this issue of CURE®, has an interesting and inspiring story. It was one of the first cancers known to have a genetic abnormality-chromosomal translocation t(11;14).

Exciting advances in treatment options for patients with mantle cell lymphoma are greatly improving the outlook for long-term remissions.

“Moving forward, (bendamustine and Rituxan) will likely become a common backbone for the incorporation of other cytotoxic or novel agents in an attempt to further improve outcomes while maintaining an effective, safe, and ideally outpatient regimen for MCL,” the authors wrote.

A roundup of the latest news and updates for patients with mantle cell lymphoma from CURE®.

“The FDA approval of (Tecartus) will change the way we treat patients with relapsed MCL forever and for the better,” said Dr. Michael Wang.

The Food and Drug Administration has had a busy summer, approving new agents to treat a variety of cancers. Here are five recent approvals that patients with cancer may have missed.

The FDA’s approval of Tecartus for adults with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is based on data that showed that the CAR T-cell therapy induced a response in 87% of patients.

Patients with cancer have been encouraged to reach out to legislators and share their personal stories and advocate for why they think continued funding is important to further cancer research.

“We learned from previous prospective studies (that) using chemoimmunotherapy for those patients with TP53 aberrations, the survival data compared with others that do not harbor this mutation are much less favorable,” said Dr. Jia Ruan.

“It is important to note that the data predates the widespread use of BTK inhibitors and even cellular therapies such as CAR T-cell therapy, specifically,” Dr. Reem Karmali said in an interview. “And so, it doesn't reliably reflect the potential advancements and survival that we've been able to achieve with these novel targeted therapies.”

To commemorate National Cancer Survivors Day on June 7, CURE® invited its readers to share their encouraging stories of survival.

“Altogether, this pharmacological data supports the concept of CAR T-cell therapy being able to overcome MCL disease with poor risk factors,” said lead study author Dr. Luhua (Michael) Wang.

Precision medicine is improving outcomes for aggressive types of lymphomas, such as mantle cell lymphoma.