PeerPOV: The Pulse on Medicine

The evolution of biomarkers informing therapy decisions began in 2004, when the FDA approved a medicine to treat EGFR mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Since then, researchers have identified more than 20 distinct mutations in driver genes that are specific to lung cancer, nine of which are treatable through FDA-approved therapy drugs: epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), ROS1, BRAF V600E, NTRK, MET, RET, and histological expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1).

Confirming a patient's biomarker status can open the door to precision medicine.

The molecular characterization of lung cancer has considerably changed the classification and treatment of these tumors, becoming an essential component of pathologic diagnosis and oncologic therapy decisions. The success of targeted anticancer therapies and new immunotherapy approaches has created a new paradigm of personalized therapy and has also led to accelerated development of new drugs for lung cancer treatment. Additional research is needed to identify and help treat the approximately one-third of lung cancer patients for whom biomarkers have yet to be identified.

This podcast focuses on clinically relevant cancer biomarkers as targets for therapy, as well as potential new targets for drug development. We speak in our first episode with Dr. David M. Waterhouse, who just moved to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, and until last month was the former Director of Clinical Research at Oncology-Hematology Care, in Cincinnati. We also talk about how these biomarkers are used in academic versus community hospitals. In our second episode, we will talk with Dr. Sinchita Roy Chowdhuri, a molecular pathologist from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, about what you didn’t know about actionable biomarkers for NSCLC.

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 [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!

For this episode, we have two fascinating interviews in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, when we raise awareness for the prevention, early detection, treatment, and survivorship of breast cancer. To that end, we speak with Dr. Tania Španić, President of Europa Donna, The European Breast Cancer Patient Organization, who is a survivor herself. She is also Chair of the European Society of Medical Oncology’s Patient Advocacy Working Group.

We also talk to Dr. Ines-Maria Vaz-Duarte-Luis from the Cancer Institute Gustave Roussy in Paris, about her recent articles on the dynamics of patient-reported outcomes after adjuvant breast cancer chemotherapy.

We hope these 2 interviews provide the lens of the patient perspective and physician-researcher on various QOL aspects that patients affected by breast cancer must face.

Enjoy Listening!

Additional reading

Paluch-Shimon S, et al. ESO-ESMO fifth international consensus guidelines for breast cancer in young women (BCY5). Ann Oncol. 2022 Aug 4:S0923-7534(22)01858-0.

Di Meglio A, et al. Dynamics of Long-Term Patient-Reported Quality of Life and Health Behaviors After Adjuvant Breast Cancer Chemotherapy. J Clin Oncol. 2022 Sep 20;40(27):3190-3204.

Vaz-Luis I, et al. ESMO Expert Consensus Statements on Cancer Survivorship: promoting high-quality survivorship care and research in Europe. Ann Oncol. 2022 Aug 10:S0923-7534(22)03792-9.

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 [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Physician’s Weekly podcast. I am your host, Dr. Rachel Giles, from Medicom Medical Publishers, in collaboration with Physician’s Weekly. Today we have two great interviews, one with the senior author on a recent trial using a unique medical approach published in Nature Medicine, and the other with our regular expert, who goes by the pseudonym Dr. MedLaw.

But first, we talk with Professor Stephen Russell, from the University of Iowa Institute for Vision Research, Iowa City, IA, about how his team has been using oligonucleotide injections into the eyes of vision-impaired patients with Leber’s congenital amaurosis, to force the transcription machinery to skip the exon bearing a mutation in a gene called CEP290. The trial has some surprising results, which were recently published in Nature Medicine.

Enjoy listening!

Further reading

Russell SR, Drack AV, Cideciyan AV, Jacobson SG, Leroy BP, Van Cauwenbergh C, Ho AC, Dumitrescu AV, Han IC, Martin M, Pfeifer WL, Sohn EH, Walshire J, Garafalo AV, Krishnan AK, Powers CA, Sumaroka A, Roman AJ, Vanhonsebrouck E, Jones E, Nerinckx F, De Zaeytijd J, Collin RWJ, Hoyng C, Adamson P, Cheetham ME, Schwartz MR, den Hollander W, Asmus F, Platenburg G, Rodman D, Girach A. Intravitreal antisense oligonucleotide sepofarsen in Leber congenital amaurosis type 10: a phase 1b/2 trial. Nat Med. 2022 May;28(5):1014-1021. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-01755-w. Epub 2022 Apr 4. PMID: 35379979; PMCID: PMC9117145.

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 [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!

Welcome to this episode of Physician’s Weekly podcast. I am your host, Dr. Rachel Giles, from Medicom Medical Publishers, in collaboration with Physician’s Weekly.

Later in this podcast, we have a riveting conversation with our returning guest who goes by the pseudonym Dr. MedLaw. She is a certified radiologist as well as a lawyer, and she provides 5 essential tips you need to know to avoid getting patient complaints. She provides examples of common mistakes that you will definitely recognize, or if you are like me, may have made yourself. Always a fantastic segment.

But first, we interview a family physician and the president of Physicians Group of Southeastern Ohio, Dr. Patrick Goggin, about bringing back house calls. When Dr. Patrick Goggin’s grandfather started a primary care practice in Cambridge, Ohio in 1930, the “house call” was a common practice. Recently Dr. Patrick Goggin and his brother Mark, who are both partners of Medical Associates of Cambridge, saw a need to bring back the “house call” and adapt the practice to better serve their senior population. At the time, Medical Associates of Cambridge had just entered a partnership with Agilon health to transform into a new strategy of value-based care that treats the “whole patient, not the disease.” Now, when many of their patients are unable to get in for their regular and annual wellness exams, doctors and nurses make house calls to those who are chronically ill and homebound.

Enjoy listening!

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 [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!

Amie Zarling, PhD (Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Iowa State University), reviews some interesting research on developing and evaluating effective programs for hard-to-reach, under-resourced, and/or under-served populations, which primarily focus on improving family health. Also, regular contributor Dr. MedLaw discusses how, when, and why physicians should disclose their own errors. Did you know that hiding an error will underpin the independent intentional tort of fraudulent concealment and that because it is an intentional choice, it will not be covered by malpractice insurance? How about that the Statute of Limitations for fraudulent concealment is also usually three times longer than that for malpractice?

Listen to learn more!

Further reading

https://faculty.sites.iastate.edu/azarling/

Hudson J, Zarling A, Ungar R, Albright L, Tkatch R, Russell D, Schaeffer J, Wicker ER. Older Adults' Experiences in a Web-Based Intervention for Loneliness. Gerontol Geriatr Med. 2023 Mar 22;9:23337214231163004. doi: 10.1177/23337214231163004. PMID: 36968123; PMCID: PMC10037731.

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 [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!