Initial and Consolidation Therapy for Younger Patients with Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Mantle cell lymphoma is an incurable B-cell malignancy. Treatment of young fit patients is particularly challenging, because careful consideration should be made when building a long-term treatment strategy that would provide longer remissions and increase patients ’ quality of life. Most young fit patients achieve long remissions with a combination of immunochemotherapy containing rituximab and high-dose cytarabine, followed by high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem-cell transplantation. The addition of maintenance therapy with rituximab following autol ogous stem-cell transplantation prolongs the time to relapse and increases overall survival. Despite an intensive approach, late relapses are common and are usually treated with novel agents.
Source: Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research