Limitations in Treating R/R Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Michael Wang, MD: The therapies for mantle cell lymphoma have evolved, but unmet clinical needs have also evolved. We relied on chemotherapy. When the patients became chemotherapy resistant, what did we do? We used to use chemotherapy-free therapies. The urgent need was a strategy to address the chemotherapy-resistant patient population. Then we found a targeted therapy, chemotherapy-free therapies. Then we found that some patients continued to relapse after chemotherapy and chemotherapy-free therapy.

The urgent unmet clinical need was a way to help manage these high-risk patients who are resistant to chemotherapy or chemotherapy-free therapies. So we are using cell therapies. We’re using cell therapies to combat the high-risk patient after chemotherapy and chemotherapy-free therapy.

Now we see that the majority of patients treated with a CAR [chimeric antigen receptor] T-cell therapy will eventually relapse. The urgent unmet clinical need is a strategy to manage those patients who relapsed after chemotherapy, chemotherapy-free therapy, and CAR T-cell therapy. You can see that the unmet clinical needs evolved with advances in therapies.

In my opinion, precision medicine will answer the unmet clinical needs after chemotherapy-free therapy, chemotherapy, and CAR T-cell therapies. The reality is evolving, and the future is also evolving. That’s the nature of the nature.

Transcript edited for clarity.