Dr. Shah on Ongoing Trials in MCL

Bijal D. Shah, MD, oncologist/hematologist, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses ongoing trials in the field of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

There are approximately 15 MCL-specific trials that are currently recruiting patients, 5 of which are not based around BTK inhibitors, says Shah. Only 2 of those trials include patients who have progressed on a prior BTK inhibitor. That’s not great in the way of research, says Shah. In terms of CAR T-cell therapy, only one product—KTE-C19—is targeting MCL specifically. Every other trial has grouped MCL patients in with other malignancies.

One of the difficulties with finding effective therapies for patients with MCL is teasing out signals of activity from basket-type trials. In order to develop novel, effective therapies that can help move the field forward, more MCL-specific trials are needed, says Shah. Otherwise, the biological heterogeneity in clinical trials will continue to cloud signals of activity that are specific to patients with MCL.