Treatment evolution and survival impact of consolidation therapies in mantle cell lymphoma: insights from an Asia-Pacific real-world registry

Dear Editor, Treatment strategies for newly diagnosed mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) vary substantially according to patient age, performance status, and comorbidities [1]. Intensive cytarabine-based regimens followed by upfront autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has been preferred for younger or fi t patients, while less intensive ones for older or frail patients. Rituximab maintenance therapy is recommended for both groups across major guidelines [2]. While several large real-world studies have characterized MCL management in Western populations, comparable comprehensive analyses from the Asia-Paci fi c (APAC) region are limited [3 – 6]. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a multinational, multicenter retrospective registry study to delineate real-world treatment patterns, evaluate survival outcomes, and assess the impact of upfront ASCT and rituximab maintenance in newly diagnosed MCL patients across the APAC region.This study included patients with newly diagnosed MCL between January 2008 and November 2020 who received treatment at 31 academic centers across eight APAC jurisdictions: China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. This study was approved by the institutional review boards of all participating institutions. Survival data were updated through the cutoff date of December 15, 2023. A propensity score model was employed to generate inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), to adjust for imbalances in baseline characteristics between the treatment groups. A total of 642 patients were included (Supplementary Fig. 1). The