LRF recently spoke with Michael Williams, MD, Chair of LRF’s MCL Consortium, and asked that he describe the MCL Consortium in his own words and provide an update on its activities.

While continuous scientific research and discovery are necessary to move a field forward, MCL creates a number of challenges for researchers themselves. One of the difficulties of working in disease-specific research is that individual investigators, laboratories or institutions often develop a lot of expertise in an area, but are essentially working in a silo. There is not much cross-fertilization among scientific investigators. That is why groups such as LRF’s MCL Consortium are so important. The Consortium provides an opportunity to break down the silos and bring the investigators together to share data and move the field forward.

What is the purpose of the MCLC? To bring together investigators who share an interest in achieving a better understanding of the biology and treatment of MCL, and improve outcomes and survival for MCL patients.

What makes the MCL Consortium so unique? We provide shared resources that are helpful for MCL investigators. We have a Cell Bank which provides an important resource for researchers investigating biological aspects of MCL and can function as a tool for screening new therapeutic agents. We also have a website (www.mantlecelllymphoma.org) that provides the latest MCL information to patients and professionals. Importantly, we hold an annual MCL scientific workshop where investigators from around the world come together and share data and ideas.

What are the biggest challenges facing the MCL Consortium? The number of MCL publications and presentations has been increasing in a linear fashion for several years now. Much of this is a direct result of LRF’s support of MCL research—LRF is the world’s leading private funding source for this effort. With all of this new data, the challenge is how to make the most of that information and identify the most promising new treatments. How do we decide which treatments receive the highest priority to bring into clinical trial? How do we integrate and analyze data from distinct research areas that, taken together, will provide new insights and approaches?

Why is the MCL Consortium Cell Bank so important? In order to test a new therapeutic agent you have to have a model system in the laboratory. Over the years, there have been tissue cell lines derived from patient samples. However, many laboratories have their own lines, which have been grown under differing conditions. Therefore, it is hard to replicate experiments from one lab to the other. The cell lines also may be difficult to acquire from laboratories. In response, we have collected several of the most important MCL cell lines and deposited them into a Cell Bank where they are rigorously characterized. Now investigators can request the cell lines directly from the facility hosting the Cell Bank. Doing so makes it easier to compare and reproduce results.

How will the Bioinformatics Project move MCL research forward? An important and powerful tool being used in lymphoma research is gene profile analysis. This tool provides very detailed and extensive data on individual patient samples and can help identify new pathways that can be targeted for treatment and prognosis. The challenge is, how to integrate and handle the massive amount of data that results from this technology and apply it clinically. Bioinformatics (the use of mathematics, statistical techniques and computer programs to collect, organize and analyze large amounts of biological data) is one way to integrate the data and link it with annotated clinical information. LRF’s Scientific Advisory Board and the MCL Consortium Executive Committee have been exploring this area and are now moving forward under the guidance of leading investigators in MCL and bioinformatics research—we are fortunate that many of these investigators are members of the LRF Scientific Board and the MCLC. The first step will be to develop a database that will allow investigators to tap into this extensive core of research data. A request-for-proposals to create such a database is being finalized with an anticipated award date later this year.

What would you like to see the MCL Consortium do in the future? The MCL Consortium’s main focus will be to continue to stimulate research and collaboration among MCL investigators via the core resources noted above, the new Bioinformatics effort, and the annual Investigators’ Workshop. We also do this directly via funding of correlative science grants to complement clinical therapeutic trials; this sort of funding typically is not available from other sources. Given the rapid increase in new treatment approaches for newly diagnosed and relapsed MCL, we have recently upgraded our web site to provide an enhanced resource for patients and professionals. Looking into the near future, we anticipate further improvement in survival and accelerated progress toward the cure of MCL, with the LRF and the MCL Consortium playing leading roles in this effort.