Tycel Phillips, MD, on Glofitamab Research, Progress in Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Tycel Phillips, MD, of the City of Hope, discusses a study of glofitamab, a bispecific antibody, in patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

The study was designed to “explore the efficacy” of glofitamab in relapsed or refractory MCL, Dr. Phillips said, noting that “because of the current standards of practice, the majority of these patients were previously exposed to a Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor.”

The study showed an overall response rate of 83.8% across the cohort of 37 patients, with a complete remission rate of 73%, he said.

Glofitamab may eventually help to address an unmet need in patients with relapsed or refractory MCL, Dr. Phillips said, noting options are currently “a bit limited” for this population.

“Hopefully as time goes on, we’ll have more available options for these patients,” he said. “There are several interesting drugs still in clinical research.”

In terms of glofitamab specifically, “it will probably still need to be explored in a much larger study before it gets in any sort of indication and treatment to patients with mantle cell lymphoma,” Dr. Phillips said.

However, there is a path forward.

“As of right now, it doesn’t really change the treatment landscape because we can’t get this off of a clinical trial,” Dr. Phillips said. “But if the data that we see in this small study is recapitulated in a much larger study, then I would presume that this drug will get an indication in this patient population.”

If that occurs, the bispecific antibody would “provide an option” for patients who may be unable to receive or access chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, he said.

“I think if we can get to the point where we get an indication for this, I do think this will be a much-needed treatment option for these patients,” Dr. Phillips said, noting that developing glofitamab and other therapies “buys more time until we have more effective therapies to hopefully make this disease a chronic disease at some point in the future.”