Expanding therapeutic options in mantle cell lymphoma

Clin Lymphoma Myeloma. 2007 Aug:7 Suppl 5:S184-91. doi: 10.3816/clm.2007.s.021.

Abstract

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) still carries a poor prognosis. Chemoimmunotherapy (combination with rituximab) is the routine first-line therapy, although data strongly suggest a benefit from intensification through high-dose therapy with stem cell transplantation consolidation or dose-intense chemotherapy with HyperCVAD (fractionated cyclophosphamide/vincristine/doxorubicin/dexamethasone)/rituximab. Unfortunately, most patients still experience relapse, and a multitude of novel agents are currently being tested in this setting, including proteasome inhibitors with bortezomib (the first of its class and first Food and Drug Administration-approved drug in MCL), mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors, Bcl-2 inhibitors, and antiangiogenesis agents, among others. Because of the relative rarity of the disease-MCL represents 6% of non-Hodgkin lymphoma-an obvious effort is needed to enroll patients on clinical trials. Not surprisingly, as in other non-Hodgkin lymphomas, MCL appears more and more as a heterogeneous disease, which might impact future clinical trial design through pharmacogenomics and hopefully help us develop smaller "molecular" relevant trials.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / therapeutic use*
  • Combined Modality Therapy
  • Humans
  • Lymphoma, Mantle-Cell / drug therapy*
  • Radioimmunotherapy