STAT+: Stem cell transplant not needed for most mantle cell lymphoma patients, study suggests

SAN DIEGO — Mantle cell lymphoma patients who go into deep remission from a first therapy may not get any benefit from a follow-up transplant of their stem cells, according to a new study. The results help shore up a growing consensus that most mantle cell lymphoma patients simply no longer need to undergo the intense and sometimes dangerous procedure now that there are safer and effective treatments like targeted and immune therapy.

“Another nail in the coffin for autologous stem cell transplant and consolidation for frontline mantle cell therapy,” said Elise Chong, a hematologist-oncologist and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who did not work on the study.

The early days of mantle cell lymphoma were in the 1980s, said Timothy Fenske, a physician and professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin who presented the study at the annual American Society of Hematology meeting here on Tuesday. Back then, outcomes were “pretty discouraging,” he said: “Median survival was in the three to five year range.”

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