Dr. Kahl Discusses Unmet Needs in MCL

Brad Kahl, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Siteman Cancer Center, discusses unmet needs in the treatment landscape of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

Kahl says that the biggest unmet need in MCL is the lack of curative options, particularly with the rate of relapse being so high. This begins with improving outcomes in the frontline setting, and there are multiple novel targeted agents that are showing good activity in MCL, such as ibrutinib (Imbruvica), acalabrutinib (Calquence), and venetoclax (Venclexta). There is also interest in combination therapy with these novel agents and current standard therapies.

Ibrutinib is currently approved for relapsed disease, and is used frequently to treat these patients. It is being tested now in the frontline setting in the SHINE trial. The SHINE trial is a phase III trial of ibrutinib in combination with bendamustine and rituximab (Rituxan) in older patients with newly diagnosed MCL. The study aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the combination.