Dr. Kaplan Discusses Combinations With Rituximab for MCL

Lawrence D. Kaplan, MD, clinical professor of medicine, director, Adult Lymphoma Program, division of Hematology-Oncology, University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses combinations with rituximab (Rituxan) for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

Rituximab in combination with chemotherapy is a standard of care in upfront therapy for MCL. Most patients will have had treatment with rituximab as a part of their upfront therapy.

The other area that is being examined now is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. explains Kaplan. MCL has CD19-positive cells, and therefore it should respond well to CAR T-cell therapy. It is important to look at the effect of this treatment, Kaplan says, because although it is a much less common lymphoma, CAR T-cell therapy may prove to be an active approach in MCL.

Additionally, investigators have determined that the combination of lenalidomide (Revlimid) plus rituximab can achieve a high rate of complete response (CR) and minimal residual disease negativity when used as an initial treatment for patients with MCL. Previous results have shown that this combination induces an overall response rate of 92% and a CR rate of 64%, warranting further investigation in a phase III trial.