Dr. Ruan on Treatment Considerations in MCL

Jia Ruan, MD, PhD, associate professor of clinical medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses treatment considerations in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

MCL is known to be a heterogenous disease. Therefore, at diagnosis, disease and patient characteristics are factored into initial treatment selection, Ruan explains.

Most patients are diagnosed with nodal-type MCL, which can cause lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, cytopenia, anemia, low platelet count, low white blood cell count, bone marrow and bone involvement, and gastrointestinal tract involvement, Ruan says. In these situations, patients are offered immediate treatment intervention to alleviate their symptoms and improve their chances of getting them to remission, explains Ruan.

Conversely, patients with non–nodal MCL, a more indolent histology, may be offered active surveillance to monitor how rapidly their condition is progressing and determine when treatment is needed, concludes Ruan.