What Is the Benefit of Rituximab Maintenance in Patients With MCL?

Yucai Wang, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses his abstract on rituximab maintenance after first-line treatment with bendamustine plus rituximab in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) presented at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago.

About 600 patients from 26 centers in the United States were split 1:1 to receive or not receive rituximab maintenance. After five and a half years of follow-up, rituximab maintenance significantly improved survival outcomes, including event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS). The respective five-year EFS and OS rates were approximately 50% and 70% in those who received rituximab maintenance versus 30% and 55% in those who did not.

“Our study and other retrospective studies—now combined with almost 2500 patients—show a consistent benefit of rituximab maintenance after first-line [bendamustine plus rituximab] in patients who are not eligible for stem cell transplant,” Dr. Wang concluded.