Dr. Shah and Dr. Wang on the Challenges of Managing High-Risk MCL

Bijal Shah, MD, MS, associate member, Department of Malignant Hematology, Moffitt Cancer Center, and Michael Wang, MD, professor, Department of Lymphoma & Myeloma, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discuss the challenges of managing high-risk mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

High-risk MCL is characterized by blastoid or TP53 variants and can grow quickly, Shah explains. As such, identifying these patients early to ensure all potential treatment options are available for use is critical. For example, patients with high-risk disease who are not identified early may be ineligible for CAR T-cell therapy, which requires apheresis and bridging therapy, Shah says. Moreover, although indolent MCL may be actively monitored, high-risk MCL often requires aggressive treatment. 

Currently, a gap between referring community practices and academic practices exists because community practices may not be as familiar with identifying high-risk disease. As such, sharing knowledge of markers of high-risk disease and the differences between indolent and high-risk MCL is an important step to bridge that gap, Wang concludes.