Exploring Targeted and CAR T-Cell Therapies on the Horizon for MCL

Michael Wang, MD, a professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses potential upcoming treatment options for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), including targeted therapies and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.

These treatments include LOXO-305, which Wang says is very effective and will probably be another addition to the therapeutic options in the near future. It is able to reverse Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibition, similar to the other 3 approved BTK inhibitors which are all reversible, such as ibrutinib (Imbruvica), acalabrutinib (Calquence), and zanubrutinib (Brukinsa).

Wang believes the treatment of MCL has evolved from chemotherapy regimens like rituximab (Rituxan), cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and vincristine (R-CHOP) and rituximab plus bendamustine to a targeted therapy and CAR T-cell therapy era.

Brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus), a CAR T agent, being approved is only the beginning for patients with MCL, according to Wang. Many other CAR T-cell studies are being designed for this setting with different mechanisms of action, including on and off switches, peptide insertions, and PD-L1 knockout.

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