We analyzed 495 MCL patients from the Czech Lymphoma Study Group data registry. With the median follow-up of 4.4 years, 51.7% patients progressed or relapsed and 34.1% died.
Five-year overall survival reached 65.3% and five-year progression free survival 44.1% of the patients. Maintenance rituximab (MR) after first line therapy improved overall and progression free survival compared to the patients under observation only (both p 0 (p = .003), age (p = .014), and MIPI (p < .001) were associated with MR failure.
Patients who did not achieve complete remission have had two-fold higher risk of MR failure (p < .001). Autologous stem cell transplant reduced the risk of MR failure by 69% (p < .001).
The MIPI and the beta-2-microglobulin were identified as independent predictors of MR failure (p = .02 and p = .03, respectively). Patients who relapsed/progressed on MR reached shorter OS calculated from the MR start compared to patients without failure (HR = 15.0; p < .001).