Kashyap Patel, MD, CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, current president of the Community Oncology Alliance, and associate editor of Evidence-Based Oncology™, discusses his partnership with Sema4 and LabCorp and their joint goal to advance whole-exome sequencing (WES) for targeted oncology treatment.
Kashyap Patel, MD, CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, current president of the Community Oncology Alliance, and associate editor of Evidence-Based Oncology™, discusses his partnership with Sema4 and LabCorp and their joint goal to advance whole-exome sequencing (WES) for targeted oncology treatment.
His abstract, “Social Determinants of Health in a Prospective Study of Whole-Exome Sequencing in Advanced Cancer Patients From Underserved Communities,” is being presented at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.
Transcript
How do you hope to advance WES in the community oncology setting to address genomic testing disparities?
We submitted a few abstracts, and one of them was actually the whole-exome sequencing. I started talking about disparity with all of my lab partners, and 2 big labs—Sema4 and LabCorp—they both came on board to start helping us out, working with patients so that if patients cannot pay for the sequencing, we would let go of their out-of-pocket costs to make sure that patients do not feel discriminated if they don’t have resources for being sequenced and typed.
And with 2 companies, Sema4 and LabCorp, we started doing NGS [next-generation sequencing] and whole-exome sequencing. We found, really, the mutations that are actionable that would make a difference in the patient’s treatment. The studies are ongoing. We started this study by reaching out to, again, leadership. We convinced them that there’s a lack of reflection of the minority patient population in the global genomic database, something called genome-wide association studies, where 80% of the database is Northern Europeans, only 2% Black, 1% are Hispanic.
These 2 companies have provided us with the research tools, with the sole purpose of addressing disparities in the genomic testing. The first phase started at my clinic; we satisfactorily fulfilled all of the requirements. So now we are expanding that study to about 5 sites in Sema4 and 10 sites in the LabCorp study.
I do believe that appropriate representation of population genomics is a key to the success of precision medicine initiatives.
Standard Criteria for Loss of Ambulation Needed in DMD
April 19th 2024A recent study suggests the differences between ambulation definitions for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can impact the identification of ambulant vs nonambulant individuals, and standard criteria across settings are needed.
Read More
Overcoming Employment Barriers for Lasting Social Impact: Freedom House 2.0 and Pathways to Work
April 16th 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are bringing you a special month-long podcast series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. Welcome to our second episode, in which we learn all about Freedom House 2.0 and the Pathways to Work program.
Listen
Early Involvement Critical in Treating Immunotherapy-Induced Overlap Syndrome
April 19th 2024A series of case studies reveals the importance of early diagnosis and involvement of special teams of clinicians when dealing with potential cases of overlap syndrome, which encompasses myocarditis, myasthenia gravis, and immune checkpoint inhibitor–related myositis.
Read More
Making Giant Strides in Maternity Health Through Baby Steps
April 9th 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are kicking off a special month-long podcast series with our strategic alliance partner, UPMC Health Plan. Welcome to our first episode, which is all about the Baby Steps Maternity Program and its mission to support women throughout every step of their pregnancy journey.
Listen
Government agencies have created an online portal for the public to report potential anticompetitive practices in health care; there are changes coming to the “boxed warning” section for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR T) to highlight T-cell blood cancer risk; questions about the safety of obesity medications during pregnancy have arisen in women on them who previously struggled with fertility issues.
Read More