A real-world study of patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) found that the drug Brukinsa may work better than older BTK inhibitors. Researchers reported that patients treated with zanubrutinib in second- or third-line therapy lived longer compared with those treated with Imbruvica.
The study also showed that patients taking zanubrutinib went longer before needing another treatment, averaging 16.8 months. This compared with 11.9 months for Calquence and 9.8 months for ibrutinib.
The main reasons patients stopped treatment were cancer progression and side effects. Many patients who switched from ibrutinib to newer drugs did so because of treatment-related toxicity.
Because there are no direct clinical trials comparing these three medicines in mantle cell lymphoma, the findings suggest zanubrutinib could be one of the most effective newer treatment options for patients whose disease has returned after earlier therapies.