Is It Possible to Achieve Health Equity in Multiple Myeloma?

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Is It Possible to Achieve Health Equity in Multiple Myeloma? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can health equity be achieved for underserved communities in multiple myeloma patient care? Watch as a panel of myeloma experts explains.

See More From the Diverse Partners in Your Myeloma Care Program

Transcript:

Rebecca Law:

I want to ask each of you to answer a question. So how can we achieve health equity in the care of multiple myeloma patients sooner rather than later?

Diahanna Vallentine:

I think we all appreciate the fact that the African American or underserved communities do not have enough people that are either willing or know that we need to go into those communities the way they are, meet the people the way they are, so that we can provide them with education, with resources, that are available. I think that is one of the first steps. And fortunately, or unfortunately, with the racial problems we’re having in our country right now, a lot of governors and mayors are opening up opportunities that we got to get into the communities. And I think this might be a great opportunity for the myeloma community to perhaps step up and say we would like to be presented or represented in the community when there are funds and when the interest is really high. I think that if we could establish a foothold that way, then we can just go on and work toward lessening that gap and disparities in the undeserved communities.

Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi:

Diahanna, that was really nicely put. I think what I can add to that is that we basically are already seeing a lot more discussion, a lot more focus coming up to this topic of racial disparity in multiple myeloma at different levels. So, what we need to do is continue to build upon that momentum, continue to build the relationships so that there is actually a combined force from various aspects. I would love to do telehealth going forward, but like Dr. Usmani brought up, if there is not enough reimbursement or leadership or legislation to support all of that, then our wants and needs may not be served fully. So I think developing those relationships, developing those partnerships and moving forward as we’re gaining momentum to address this particular question, this particular issue is extremely important. And I feel it is more hopeful and exciting in the future as compared to where we’ve come from.

Jenny Ahlstrom:

I would just reiterate what Diahanna said. I think it’s in building the programs that are simple enough for everybody to understand and utilize that makes just the usability of them as available as possible, and then building that relationship in those communities where the needs are. I totally agree with what Diahanna’s saying, you need to take the programs to the people where they are and not to expect them to come to your programs.

Dr. Saad Usmani:

I agree with everything that has been said on this topic. And I have to say that this is going to be a two-way dialogue, a two-way partnership. That’s the only way that this can succeed moving forward. Racial disparities are an inherent part of our everyday life, whether it’s in healthcare, whether it’s in other interactions we have with each other, and there’s a lot of historic perspective and context to that. This is not going to be a quick fix, this is going to be a long-term process. But it will have to be a partnership. And I’m talking on a broader level with myeloma care and better survival outcomes for all myeloma patients as the goal. But then looking at the overall societal goals as well, and trying to see how we can remove the inherent biases that everyone has and develop more fruitful productive relationships going forward in our respective geographic regions, but overall in our country as well. I think that’s the overarching theme and tone of the conversations we’re having in the country right now, and it certainly makes sense to do that for myeloma care as well.

Rebecca Law:

I want to take the time to thank each and every one of you for joining me today. On behalf of the Patient Empowerment Network and Diverse Health Hub, I am Rebecca Law. Thank you.

Are Myeloma Clinical Trials More Critical for African Americans?

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Are Myeloma Clinical Trials More Critical for African Americans? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo. 

Are multiple myeloma clinical trials becoming more critical for African, Hispanic, Asian, and other racial and ethnic groups as U.S. demographics change? Watch as Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi from the Mayo Clinic explains the impact of low trial participation rates by African Americans and his experience with some of his myeloma patients.

See More From the Diverse Partners in Your Myeloma Care Program

Transcript:

Rebecca Law:

Dr. Ailawadhi, the demographic in America is changing quite rapidly. Does this mean clinical trial participation is more critical than ever?

Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi:

It absolutely is, Rebecca. There is no way to kind of shine enough of a bright light on this topic. And I’m glad that we’re talking about it. There is more interest and also more thought process being put behind it. So you’re right in saying that the demographics are changing quite a bit. So we don’t know how and when we’ll get all the 2020 Census data; but over the past few years, the Census Bureau has been releasing updates where we know that Hispanics are the fastest growing racial ethnic group in the country and followed by Asians and African Americans are already a huge part of our demographic. So whatever we’ve discussed before when we said that patients can present at different ages, they can present with different symptoms, we also know from our experience of other diseases like hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, that the way certain drugs are metabolized could be inherently genetically different between, let’s say, African Americans and whites.

Unfortunately, in myeloma, we don’t know any of that, because clinical trial participation overall in cancer and also especially in myeloma, in a disease where African Americans may be affected by this diagnosis way more, the clinical trial participation is extremely low, in single digits. Which means that all the drugs that we utilize are FDA-approved, have become FDA-approved with not enough safety or benefit data in racial ethnic minorities. Now, I’m not saying that there is any problem in using those drugs; we use them, they benefit patients outrightly. But I think that underscores the importance that clinical trial data and generating robust safety and benefit data in all racial ethnic groups, considering that our demographic 10 years from today is not going to be what it is now or what it was 10 years ago. So understanding the dynamics of drugs, their impact, their benefit, their safety, in all racial ethnic groups becomes extremely important. And that can only be done when either clinical trials are specifically done in those populations, which, as Diahanna mentioned very well, appropriately before, it’s a very challenging thing, because there has been a traditional lack of trust there. So it becomes very important.

I can tell you that I had mentioned earlier that we’re doing a questionnaire just to understand why patients don’t want to go on clinical trials, or do they not want to go on. It’s just maybe, it’s an access issue. And I distinctly remember—I cannot take an anecdotal look at it, because I’m a clinician, I’m a researcher, I’m not supposed to look at the end of one. But I’ve had at least two specific cases where newly diagnosed multiple myeloma African American patients who’ve come, and I’ve very clearly explained to them that I’m just wanting them to consider going on this study with a one-time questionnaire. No samples, no bone marrows, no treatment, no nothing. All I want to understand is what they think about clinical trials. It’s a five-page questionnaire, 50 questions, multiple choices. We’re not taking any other data. Both these patients took the—they signed the consent, so they took the questionnaire. They took it home, we could do it electronically, but they said they wanted to think about it.

“Know what? I don’t feel comfortable with going on a clinical trial, even though it’s a one-time questionnaire. I’m going to kind of respectfully decline.” And I initially could not understand the whole thought process because it seemed, “Well, it’s just a questionnaire. We do so many surveys online.” But I’ve talked to them several times since then, and the thought process, which Diahanna brought, up about that lack of trust, that came out loud and clear. These patients are still receiving their treatment with us, because initially there were concerns, they said, “Well, if I don’t do the questionnaire, maybe this doctor won’t treat me.” They’re receiving their treatment with us, they are continuing, we’re good, we have a very good relationship, but they decided not to go on those. So I think clinical trial participation is extremely important, especially because of the changing demographics, like you said.

What Do Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Look Like?

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What Do Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Look Like? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How do health disparities in minority populations with multiple myeloma play out? Expert Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi from the Mayo Clinic joined to discuss data about African Americans and Hispanic Americans with myeloma. Watch as he shares the average age of disease onset, how their symptoms vary, transplant rates, new treatment rates and more.

See More From the Diverse Partners in Your Myeloma Care Program

Transcript:

Rebecca Law:

Dr. Ailawadhi, for our audience who might not understand what health disparities in myeloma look like, can you give a high-level definition and overview, please?

Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi:

So, there are disparities at a lot of different levels, just taking the case of multiple myeloma, specifically. So, for example, patients from different racial and ethnic backgrounds tend to present in a different way. So, African Americans present with the diagnosis at a much younger age. The presence of the myeloma precursor called MGUS, or monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, is seen much more frequently in African Americans. Even I would say include Hispanics into that, because Hispanics also get diagnosed at a much younger age. The disease presents very differently, for example, African Americans will present much more frequently with anemia or kidney dysfunction, but they will present with much lesser bone fractures in multiple myeloma.

So, those are disparities in how the disease presents or how it becomes kind of evident. Now, when we talk about disparities, one of the very stark shades of disparities in myeloma is how treatment is given or made available to patients, especially when we talk about racial minorities. So, there has been a lot of literature looking at this, and it has been seen that patients who belong to racial and ethnic minorities, they do not get access to the same kind of treatment in the same timely fashion. So, for example, African Americans and Hispanics are much lesser likely to get a transplant when it comes to myeloma treatment. Now again, I don’t want to say that improvements have not happened. The rates of transplant, rates of new drug use, have increased across the board for all races and ethnicities, but when we compare, the rate of that increase has been much slower in African Americans.

In fact, one of the studies that we looked at, some national data, it took Hispanics a little more than 100 days from the time of diagnosis to get to initial treatment with bortezomib (Velcade), which is a cornerstone drug and is used almost across the board for initial therapy. So, the treatment, there are disparities. And similar, there are some outcome disparities. While on the face of analysis, it’s been said several times that races or different racial sub-groups will have similar outcomes, I think the important thing to understand is that biologically, African Americans have a less aggressive disease, which means that if given the right kind of treatment, African Americans are supposed to in fact have a slightly better outcome than even whites. And there’s one large analysis that came out of the VA system from the Dana-Farber group last year, which was actually highlighting that, because they were able to show that in an equal access system like the VA, African Americans actually had better outcomes, or better survivable. So, there are disparities at the time of presentation, at the time of how treatment is received, how timely is the treatment, and in fact also, outcomes. Because I would say that having an equal outcome for a racial minority is not necessarily lack of disparity, that may actually be underscoring the disparity.