According to reporting from OncLive, a recent study found that mantle cell lymphoma patients with B-cell receptor signaling tended to have poorer treatment outcomes. The study was first published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The Study
The study involved a total of 30 people living with the disease as well as 10 healthy participants that were age-matched to the patients. The researchers cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples from these participants. The team then collected samples of blood soon after diagnosis (before treatment had started) and also when the patients experienced relapse of disease six months or longer after their latest course of treatment.
The team defined B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling through finding the phosphorylation status of a number of proteins downstream of BCR signaling, including STAT5, SYK, NF-κB p65, LCK, AKT, BTK, ERK1/2, PLCγ2, and p38.
The median overall survival of the patients was 47 months and median progression-free survival was 38 months. The researchers grouped the patients into BCR receptor high response (11 patients) and BCR low response (19 patients). The high response group saw a median progression-free survival of 15 months vs 40 months in the low response group. Meanwhile, median overall survival for these groups was 27 months vs 52 months. When the samples collected at first diagnosis were used, the figures changed to 8 months vs 63 months progression-free survival and 14 months vs 30 months overall.
The team concluded that BCR signaling properties were associated with worse treatment outcomes and treatment resistance to the monoclonal antibody ibrutinib, a common treatment for mantle cell lymphoma. These findings could be used in the future to predict a patient’s response to certain treatment approaches and personalize treatment overall.
About Mantle Cell Lymphoma
Mantle cell lymphoma is a rare type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. There are only about 15,000 patients in the US. This blood cancer affects B-cells, a type of white blood cell. The risk factors for mantle cell lymphoma are not particularly well known; however, acquired genetic mutations in the affected cells are what eventually causes them to become malignant. Most patients are diagnosed in their 60s. In many cases, the disease is not diagnosed until it has reached an advanced stage. Symptoms include fever, night sweats, enlarged spleen and lymph nodes, and weight loss. Treatment options include immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapies. Mantle cell lymphoma often relapses after treatment with chemotherapy. Prognosis is difficult to predict; the five-year survival rate is 50 percent, but this figure improves to 70 percent with limited-stage disease. To learn more about mantle cell lymphoma, click here.
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lymphoma mantle cell lymphoma MCL research
Last modified: May 2, 2024
