A recent report from the Food & Drug Administration reveals renewed efforts for the treatment of one of the rarest forms of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Mantle Cell Lymphoma.
Due to promising advancement in Mantle Cell treatment, the FDA has granted priority review to acalabrutinib, a Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitorfrom the makers of AstraZeneca, for MCL patients who have already undergone at least one therapy previously.
According to FDA policy, Priority Review is approved for medical studies that would offer a significant improvement in the safety or effectiveness of the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of serious conditions.
Acerta Pharma CEO Flavia Borellini gave a statement:“We believe acalabrutinib has the potential to be a very important treatment option for patients with this life-threatening blood cancer. The FDA’s NDA acceptance exemplifies our progress in the acalabrutinib development programme and continues our momentum as we seek to transform care for people with haematologic malignancies.”
This study comes at the tail-end of long list of productive projects in Lymphoma research this year. Just this June, the University of Texas MD Cancer Center in Houston reported a response rate of 100% in Mantle Cell patients inducted with a combination of ibrutinib, rituximab, and shorter cycles of chemoimmunotherapy – the first time such a treatment was fully received by patients. Heading the research, Michael Wang, MD, hopes the success of the treatment combination will prove effective in fit patients under 65 years of age with newly diagnosed MCL.
“Frontline therapy is the most important therapy for mantle cell lymphoma, because mantle cell lymphoma cells are most vulnerable to frontline attack. If the frontline therapy is good enough, it could kill all the mantle cell lymphoma cells, therefore leaving no chance for secondary resistance, and thereby (resulting in) long-term survival. And it is really my belief that if we ideally optimized the frontline therapy, that would be a shortcut to a cure,” said Dr. Wang.
