Dr. Goy on the Progression of MCL Treatment

Andre Goy, MD, MS, chief, Division of Lymphoma, chairman and director, John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the paradigm shift in the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) that has occurred over the past decade.

A lot of progress has been made in the treatmnet of patients with MCL within the past decade with 5 agents now FDA approved for use in the United States, including 3 BTK inhibitors, says Goy. Ibrutinib was the first BTK inhibitor approved by the FDA in November 2013 after showing an overall response rate (ORR) of 68% and a complete response (CR) of 21%. The median duration of response with the agent was 17.5 months.

In October 2017, acalabrutinib was approved by the FDA; this agent elicited an even higher ORR than ibrutinib at 81% and half of the patients achieved a CR. Moreover, the median duration of response was 26 months with this drug; these data were very impressive, notes Goy.

Zanubrutinib, the most recently approved BTK inhibitor for MCL, was FDA approved in November 2019 after demonstrating an ORR of 84%, a CR of 59%, and a median duration of response of 19.5 months, concludes Goy.