Real-world characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes of patients with mantle cell lymphoma by line of therapy

Approvals of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKis) and other novel agents have changed the Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) treatment paradigm, necessitating assessment of contemporaneous, real-world (rw) treatment and outcomes by line of therapy (LOT). Patients diagnosed with MCL on or after 1 January 2012 who initiated first-line (1 L) treatment in the COTA database were eligible, excluding those with concurrent primaries, history of hematologic malignancies, clinical trial participation, or missing/imprecise key dates. Rw time to next treatment (rwTTNT) and overall survival (rwOS) were evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier method from LOT start (index). Of 499 patients, most were ≥ 50 years (94.8%), male (71.5%), treated in the community (58.7%), and diagnosed with stage III/IV disease (91.2%). The most common 1 L regimen was bendamustine+rituximab (BR)±R maintenance (12.6%/23.0%, respectively). Fifty (10.0%) patients received 1 L autologous stem cell transplant. One hundred and seventy-three patients (34.7%) received 2 L, of which 72 (41.6% of 2 L) received 3 L, of which 29 (40.3% of 3 L) received 4 L +. BTKi monotherapy was the most frequently administered therapy in 2 L (26.0%). Median rwTTNT and rwOS from 1 L to 4 L were 36.8–3.2 and 86.2–8.7 months, respectively. Outcomes of patients who received 2 L+ for MCL remain poor, highlighting unmet need in the contemporary treatment paradigm.