Dr. Ruan on the Long-Term Benefits of Lenalidomide/Rituximab in MCL

Jia Ruan, MD, PhD, associate professor of clinical medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses the long-term benefits of lenalidomide (Revlimid) plus rituximab (Rituxan; R²) in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

During the 2020 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition, results of a 7-year analysis from a multicenter, phase 2 trial (NCT01472562) were presented, demonstrating high rates of complete responses and durable remissions with R² as initial treatment in younger and elderly patients with MCL.

R² is the first chemotherapy-free regimen to be evaluated in MCL as induction treatment, says Ruan. Moreover, patients on the study continued on lenalidomide maintenance therapy following 12 cycles of therapy with R². Notably, these long-term findings confirm that a chemotherapy-free approach is feasible and favored compared with chemotherapy-based regimens in this patient population, concludes Ruan.