Dr. Michael Williams on Lenalidomide Plus Rituximab in First- Line MCL

Michael E. Williams, MD, ScM, Byrd S. Leavell Professor of Medicine and Professor of Pathology, University of Virginia Health System, discusses a phase II study that explored frontline lenalidomide (Revlimid) and rituximab (Rituxan) for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

In this multicenter, phase II study, led by Jia Ruan, MD, at Weill Cornell Medicine, patients with MCL were treated with lenalidomide and rituximab in both the induction and maintenance setting. At 30 months, the overall response rate for evaluable patients was 92%, and the complete response rate was 64% (95% CI, 46 - 79).

Although it was a small study that only included 38 patients, these findings were impressive, says Williams. The study shows that nonchemotherapy-based approaches can still be very effective, he says. Interestingly, patients experienced the same benifits with the lenalidomide and rituximab combination regardless of whether or not they were classified as having lower or higher-risk MCL, WIlliams notes.

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