Cancer Treatment Today

Lay Summary: Stem cell transplantation is standard of care for mantle cell lymphoma. Mantle cell lymphoma is a fairly recently identified subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Regarded as a low-grade tumour in previous classifications, it has a median survival of only 36 months and is incurable by current treatment approaches. Widespread disease is usually present at diagnosis involving lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow and extranodal sites such as the

Thalidomide, lenalidomide and rituximab have no direct effect on MCL cells. However, both indirectly affect peripheral blood mononuclear cell-mediated cytotoxicity,  and rituximab induces both complement-dependent and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) against MCL cells. Rituximab-induced ADCC is enhanced by lenalidomide and thalidomide. In a 2004 series, thirteen patients of sixteen enrolled (81%) experienced an objective response,