Invited Review: Will Consolidation with ASCT Be a Thing of the Past for MCL and PTCL?

The treatment landscape of mantle cell (MCL) and peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) is rapidly changing; however, despite improvement in patients' survival, they still remain a largely incurable diseases. Treatment choice is dependent on patient factors, prior therapy, remission duration, and candidacy for stem cell transplantation (SCT). There are subsets of high-risk patients who do not benefit substantially from autologous SCT (ASCT) and for whom alternative targeted approaches are being examined. Here, we critically analyze the actual role of ASCT in PTCL and MCL.

Research in areas of maintenance therapy and minimal residual disease is ongoing to identify MCL patients who may not require ASCT for durable response. Moreover, there are subsets of high-risk MCL patients who do not benefit substantially from ASCT and for whom alternative, targeted approaches are being examined. Much less clear evidence exists regarding the impact of consolidative ASCT in PTCL, mainly for the heterogeneity of these lymphomas: it is still controversial whether patients who achieved a complete response significantly take advantage of this procedure over active surveillance only. Several clinical and biologic markers are available to predict prognosis; however, despite improvements in outcomes, standard therapeutic approaches have not been able to overcome high-risk disease features for PTCL and MCL. Thus, the need of ASCT for these diseases is still matter of debate among hematologists.