Welcome to this episode of Physician’s Weekly Podcast. My name is Dr. Rachel Giles, from Medicom Medical Publishers, in collaboration with Physician’s Weekly. There was a lot of interesting medical news this last week. Later in this episode, we interview Dr. Samer Al Hadidi, from Little Rock, Arkansas, who the lead author of a study about the lack of enrollment of African-American patients into trials in general, and here in particular, trials that were used to register the use of CAR-T cell therapies for the treatment of various hematological malignancies. He presents some interesting solutions that can be applicable to all trials.
Also in this episode of Physician’s Weekly Podcast, we speak to our regular contributor, who goes by the pseudonym, Dr. MedLaw all about what “Causality” means in the courtroom. When is a doctor the cause of a medical problem, and what can be done about it?
But first, Physician’s Weekly speaks with Dr. Eric Jonasch, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, about the results of the his recently published New England Journal of Medicine article reporting the registrational data for a small molecule belzutifan in patients with the rare tumor syndrome von Hippel-Lindau disease, abbreviated as VHL. I have had the distinct honor of knowing hundreds of VHL patients over the last 20 years, and this study has truly become a landmark breakthrough for patients dealing with tumors in their kidneys, pancreas, adrenal glands, brain or spinal cord, eyes, endolymph sacs, epididymis, or broad ligament. It was FDA approved in August 2021, and the patient and medical VHL community is so relieved to have a systemic treatment finally.
Enjoy listening!
More reading:
Jonasch E, Donskov F, Iliopoulos O, Rathmell WK, Narayan VK, Maughan BL, Oudard S, Else T, Maranchie JK, Welsh SJ, Thamake S, Park EK, Perini RF, Linehan WM, Srinivasan R; MK-6482-004 Investigators. Belzutifan for Renal Cell Carcinoma in von Hippel-Lindau Disease. N Engl J Med. 2021 Nov 25;385(22):2036-2046. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2103425. PMID: 34818478.
Al Hadidi S, Dongarwar D, Salihu HM, Kamble RT, Lulla P, Hill LC, Carrum G, Ramos CA, Heslop HE, Usmani SZ. Health disparities experienced by Black and Hispanic Americans with multiple myeloma in the United States: a population-based study. Leuk Lymphoma. 2021 Dec;62(13):3256-3263. doi: 10.1080/10428194.2021.1953013. Epub 2021 Jul 18. PMID: 34278937.
Let us know what you thought of this week’s episode on Twitter: @physicianswkly
Want to share your medical expertise, research, or unique experience in medicine on the PW podcast? Email us at editorial@physweekly.com!
Thanks for listening!