Tag Archive for: Dr. Emily Hinchcliff

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff: Why Is It Important for You to Empower Patients?

/in , /by

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff: Why Is It Important for You to Empower Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can patients be empowered? Gynecological oncologist  Dr. Emily Hinchcliff from Northwestern Medicine shares the approaches she uses in her practice to help empower patients in their journey through care.

See More from Empowering Providers to Empower Patients (EPEP)

Related Resources:

Dr. Jung Gong: Why Is It Important for You to Empower Patients?

 Charise Gleason: Why Is It Important for You to Empower Patients

Charise Gleason: Why Is It Important for You to Empower Patients?

 Dr. Craig Cole: Why Is It Important for You to Empower Patients?

Dr. Craig Cole: Why Is It Important for You to Empower Patients?

Transcript:

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

So I empower my patients through education. I think that we as physicians, as providers, serve a really key role for patients in terms of serving as medical translators, in terms of helping our patients to ensure they understand the diagnoses that are facing them and their treatment options kind of for what the next steps in their care are.

So as a GYN oncologist, I really kind of weave that through my entire practice and every step of the way, I have the great privilege of caring for my patients from their diagnosis throughout their cancer journey. And so every step of the way, ensuring that they are educated about their disease and educated about their options, I think really allows us to build a powerful partnership and gives them the kind of ownership over their own cancer care.

Overcoming Barriers: Empowering Underrepresented Groups With Endometrial Cancer

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

Overcoming Barriers: Empowering Underrepresented Groups with Endometrial Cancer from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

 How can endometrial cancer care barriers be overcome for underrepresented groups? Expert Dr. Emily Hinchcliff from Northwestern Medicine discusses racial and cultural barriers and advice to patients to be proactive toward receiving optimal care.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…know the genetic status of your tumor, specifically something called the mismatch repair status of your tumor. And then not only how does that status impact your own treatment, but also how that may impact your family members…understand what resources are out there for you as a patient, especially for women in underserved groups and minority populations.”

Download Guide | Descargar Guía en Español

See More from [ACT]IVATED Endometrial Cancer

Related Resources:

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

 Innovative Approaches to Endometrial Cancer Care in Underrepresented Communities

Innovative Approaches to Endometrial Cancer Care in Underrepresented Communities

 Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities | The Impact of Rural Residence

Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities: The Impact of Rural Residence

Transcript:

Lisa:

Dr. Hinchcliff, in your research, you dive deeply into the significant disparities that exist within medically underserved and minority populations in the U.S. when it comes to awareness of, access to, and the use of genetic services in endometrial cancer. Can you speak to the research and provide tips to these patients and families?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff: 

Yeah, so I think that there are sort of two different pieces that go on here. First is the relationship of endometrial cancer, that some of it can be, I guess, at random, and some of it can be genetic. So understanding, especially for those who have a strong family history, that there are hereditary forms of endometrial cancer. I think that’s a really important point for patients to take away. And then we, as a society, as a field, now recommend kind of routine screening for those tests to determine, Is an endometrial cancer hereditary or not? So make sure that you, as a patient, know your results and know if your family members should be tested in any way.

The second is regarding the significant disparities that exist. We know, as a field, as a kind of medical subspecialty, that there is a racial disparity in endometrial cancer mortality. While there is a lot of research going on to address the kind of potential biologic component there, is there something different about the cancers that are developed in different racial groups? I think there’s also really important research going on about the kind of systemic and cultural barriers and differences that women of different races experience that also can dramatically impact their cancer care.

Lisa:

And do you have an activation tip for this question?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

I’ll give you two different activation tips. I think that the first is to know the genetic status of your tumor, specifically something called the mismatch repair status of your tumor. And then not only how does that status impact your own treatment, but also how that may impact your family members. And then I think the second is to understand what resources are out there for you as a patient, especially for women in underserved groups and minority populations. Simply obtaining support can often be a really important key first step to gaining access and understanding of your disease.

Share Your Feedback

Innovative Approaches to Endometrial Cancer Care in Underrepresented Communities

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

Innovative Approaches to Endometrial Cancer Care in Underrepresented Communities from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can endometrial cancer care use innovative approaches in underrepresented communities? Expert Dr. Emily Hinchcliff from Northwestern Medicine discusses diagnostic testing tools and support in navigating clinical trials.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“… doing your own research and your own reading is really important, being your own advocate. But I think that your physician can serve as an excellent, almost medical translator to understand what is right for you and which of the many, many novel things that we are discovering every day is applicable to you and which might be good for you and which don’t actually apply or which are not potentially your best option in that side.”

Download Guide | Descargar Guía en Español

See More from [ACT]IVATED Endometrial Cancer

Related Resources:

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

 Overcoming Barriers: Empowering Underrepresented Groups With Endometrial Cancer

Overcoming Barriers: Empowering Underrepresented Groups With Endometrial Cancer

 Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities | The Impact of Rural Residence

Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities: The Impact of Rural Residence

Transcript:

Lisa:

Dr. Hinchcliff, are there any innovative approaches or technologies that you and your team are exploring to improve endometrial detection, treatment, or support services, especially for your underrepresented communities with limited access to healthcare resources?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

Yeah, so there are many, many different things that we’re doing here that we’re very excited about. I think I’ll probably highlight two. So one of the ones that I have been working on closely is there is an ever-increasing number of diagnostic testing tools that we have within our kind of armamentarium. And so one particular test that patients may have read about or heard about is something called circulating tumor DNA. And this is a pretty novel test that I will be completely open and honest that we don’t totally know how to use or how to incorporate in our cancer surveillance, meaning so once someone is diagnosed,  is this a test that can help us to watch to see if treatments are working or watch to see if a cancer may have come back? Similarly, can it be used as a screening tool? We just don’t know that, and so that’s an area that I am actively working in.

The other thing that one of my colleagues here is working on is trying to really create access for women who have limited access to healthcare. So we have developed a clinical trial platform to allow the women, specifically of Chicago, to better understand their options for clinical trials across the institutions in Chicago. So we have at Northwestern multiple cutting-edge endometrial cancer trials trying to bring these novel therapeutics to the forefront and to patients and also to thoughtfully triage patients to kind of treatments that we think are going to maximize their effectiveness and minimize toxicity.

But similar to us, the other institutions around Chicago have a different panel of clinical trials. And so for patients, it can be really overwhelming to know which trial, which institution, how do I know, how do I access all of that? And so we’re working to create a platform for patients and to have clinical navigators associated to help them to understand their options.

Lisa:

And do you have an activation tip?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

So I think that when patients are thinking about innovation and how can they make sure that they are at the cutting edge, I think that your physician is really your access point. So obviously, doing your own research and your own reading is really important, being your own advocate. But I think that your physician can serve as an excellent, almost medical translator to understand what is right for you and which of the many, many novel things that we are discovering every day is applicable to you and which might be good for you and which don’t actually apply or which are not potentially your best option in that side.

Share Your Feedback

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can endometrial cancer care barriers be overcome in regards to geographic location? Expert Dr. Emily Hinchcliff from Northwestern Medicine discusses geographic care barriers, solutions, and patient advice to be proactive in their care.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…understanding that post-menopausal bleeding is never normal and that you need to see a physician for that…regarding the fact that accessing care can be, as you mentioned, done in many, many different ways these days. And so understanding what your options are, whether that’s telehealth, whether that’s a consult visit and then receiving the majority of the subsequent care closer to home, you have a lot of options.”

Download Guide | Descargar Guía en Español

See More from [ACT]IVATED Endometrial Cancer

Related Resources:

Which Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Are Showing Promise

Which Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Are Showing Promise?

 Understanding Endometrial Cancer Risk: Factors Influencing Incidence and Mortality

Understanding Endometrial Cancer Risk: Factors Influencing Incidence and Mortality

 Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities | The Impact of Rural Residence

Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities: The Impact of Rural Residence

Transcript:

Lisa:

If a woman goes in and is diagnosed at her local cancer center and has endometrial cancer, should she see some type of subspecialist, would it be of benefit to that patient maybe to even do a consult, a telemedicine consult at least upon diagnosis? Or how can a person who is more remote geographically access a subspecialist care or expertise?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff: 

Yeah, absolutely. So I think that telehealth has really changed medicine in general and provides some really great opportunities for access. There is a big kind of dichotomy in endometrial cancer where early stage disease is often caught because it has a symptom, vaginal bleeding is a symptom. And so early stage disease can often be treated with surgery alone.

And so that surgical management, again, can potentially be done by a GYN oncologist at a one single time point. The subsequent care, so I’ll just use myself as an example. I will often see women for sort of that initial visit, treatment decision, sometimes surgery, but then if they need additional adjuvant therapy, such as chemotherapy, they’ll go closer to home to receive some of those therapies. And then I will serve as a bit of a consultant to their providers closer to home to discuss what treatment options, what regimens and how to manage toxicities might be good in their case.

Lisa:

And do you have an activation tip for patients for that question?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

Yeah, so I think that my activation tip here regarding barriers to endometrial cancer care is first and foremost addressing the knowledge gap, understanding that post-menopausal bleeding is never normal and that you need to see a physician for that, I think is the first key tip. The second tip, I guess, if I could give a second activation tip, is regarding the fact that accessing care can be, as you mentioned, done in many, many different ways these days. And so understanding what your options are, whether that’s telehealth, whether that’s a consult visit and then receiving the majority of the subsequent care closer to home, you have a lot of options. And we as a field in GYN oncology are really collaborative. And I think most of us would feel very positively towards creating a team to help you get the care you need.

Share Your Feedback

Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities: The Impact of Rural Residence

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities: The Impact of Rural Residence from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What kind of care disparities do endometrial cancer patients from rural areas face? Expert Dr. Emily Hinchcliff from Northwestern Medicine shares her perspective on obstacles for patient care in rural areas and patient advice to help ensure optimal care.

Download Guide | Descargar Guía en Español

See More from [ACT]IVATED Endometrial Cancer

Related Resources:

Which Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Are Showing Promise

Which Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Are Showing Promise?

 Understanding Endometrial Cancer Risk: Factors Influencing Incidence and Mortality

Understanding Endometrial Cancer Risk: Factors Influencing Incidence and Mortality

 Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

Transcript:

Lisa:

Dr. Hinchcliff, can you speak to barriers faced by rural endometrial cancer patients, those living in rural areas, and are there specific challenges that these women in rural areas face in accessing timely and quality healthcare services for endometrial cancer screening and treatment?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff: 

Absolutely. So, when I think of barriers, I think that barriers can be broken into some really key steps along the kind of diagnosis continuum. So certainly, a patient needs to understand that the symptom that they’re having is a problem. Then they need to see that problem and seek care. Then once they have established care they need to obtain a diagnosis. And then once you have a diagnosis, you need to get treated. And so I would suspect that those living remote from major hospital centers or from subspecialty care probably experience delays at each single one of those time points.

First, I think a knowledge gap probably exists about what bleeding should be, especially for postmenopausal women. Postmenopausal bleeding is not normal. And so even a small episode of spotting should warrant a visit to your physician. And then I think for those who see their physician, who have a less kind of either geographic or less access for whatever reason, there’s probably a greater prolongation of the series of visits that are required before they get the necessary endometrial sampling and a transvaginal ultrasound, which are really core tests when it comes to diagnosis.

Once the diagnosis is obtained, I think that the further referral and potential delay to someone like myself, like a GYN oncologist, is also a key barrier for those who are rural. There’s actually a really good study in gynecologic specifically in the Midwest that showed that rural women were significantly less likely to receive care from a subspecialist like myself.  I think that particular study was in endometrial, sorry in ovarian cancer, but it showed that those who receive care by a specialist are more likely to get optimal surgery and to get guideline-inherent care. So getting yourself to that subspecialist, I think is really key, but can be difficult for women who live remote from subspecialty care.

Share Your Feedback

Understanding Endometrial Cancer Risk: Factors Influencing Incidence and Mortality

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

Understanding Endometrial Cancer Risk: Factors Influencing Incidence and Mortality from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What are endometrial cancer risk factors for patients should know about? Expert Dr. Emily Hinchcliff from Northwestern Medicine discusses endometrial cancer risk factors, incidence and mortality rates, and patient advice to help guard against endometrial cancer.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…lifestyle modification is really important here. Obesity is a known risk factor for endometrial cancer. So working with your primary care physician to try to improve your health more generally, especially as it surrounds weight, is really important in terms of endometrial cancer prevention. I also think it’s important to know…that obesity and changing your obesity can impact your cancer’s response to certain therapies, especially with hormonal therapy.”

Download Guide | Descargar Guía en Español

See More from [ACT]IVATED Endometrial Cancer

Related Resources:

Which Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Are Showing Promise

Which Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Are Showing Promise?

 Overcoming Barriers: Empowering Underrepresented Groups With Endometrial Cancer

Overcoming Barriers: Empowering Underrepresented Groups With Endometrial Cancer

 Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

Transcript:

Lisa:

Dr. Hinchcliff, for patients wondering about their risk, what are risk factors for endometrial cancer, and what should patients be aware of?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

So I think that it’s really important to highlight that endometrial cancer is one of the few cancers that is actually increasing in both number and also mortality. The numbers from the American Cancer Society for 2024 are over 70,000 women, or around 70,000 women will be diagnosed, and around 13,000 women will die of their disease. And I think that unlike many cancers where we’re actually making progress, endometrial cancer, the incidence, how many people are getting it is rising. And it’s rising faster in non-white ethnicities and groups.

So as I think about risk factors, I think the important ones to highlight are certainly obesity. This I think is a large driver of why there is increasing incidence of endometrial cancer. This relates to kind of the hormonal regulation. Obesity results in increasing levels of estrogen that disproportionately affect the endometrium. And then similar to that, certain hormonal syndromes where women have irregular or infrequent periods like polycystic ovarian syndrome can also put them at higher risk. More globally, I think age, family history are also risk factors. And then as I mentioned, unfortunately, women who are non-white have a higher risk of endometrial cancer mortality, especially as relates to some of the higher risk endometrial cancer subtypes.

Lisa:

Do you have an activation tip for patients for that question?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff: 

Yeah, so I think that lifestyle modification is really important here. Obesity is a known risk factor for endometrial cancer. So working with your primary care physician to try to improve your health more generally, especially as it surrounds weight, is really important in terms of endometrial cancer prevention. I also think it’s important to know, given that this is often a patient audience that I’m speaking to, that obesity and changing your obesity can impact your cancer’s response to certain therapies, especially with hormonal therapy. So for women who are diagnosed with early stage endometrial cancer, for example, who may desire fertility preservation or may want to know what they can do to impact their own cancer care, I think that’s a really important point.

I guess I can also just bring up a quick one-liner regarding the recent publication of studies surrounding hair product use. So this is a question that we have been getting asked a lot after the publication of both the study and then the big New York Times article, but there was an NIH study that showed a potential association between hair product chemical straightener use and uterine cancer, especially for those who identify as frequent users. I think that the important key point here is that around 60 percent of the women who reported using hair products self-identified as Black and tend to initiate use earlier, so this is another risk factor that may be important.

Yeah, we’re still learning a lot more about that. Right now, there’s an unclear association in terms of what we should be doing about it.

Share Your Feedback

Which Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Are Showing Promise?

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

Which Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Are Showing Promise? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Which endometrial cancer clinical trials are showing encouraging results? Expert Dr. Emily Hinchcliff from Northwestern Medicine shares insight about novel therapies and combinations and advice for patients to be proactive in their care. 

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…understand what clinical trials are available to your physician and to you at the place that you are currently getting treated. And then also understand more globally what other clinical trials might be out there. And that’s a great question to ask your physician.”

Download Guide | Descargar Guía en Español

See More from [ACT]IVATED Endometrial Cancer

Related Resources:

Understanding Endometrial Cancer Risk: Factors Influencing Incidence and Mortality

Understanding Endometrial Cancer Risk: Factors Influencing Incidence and Mortality

 Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities | The Impact of Rural Residence

Endometrial Cancer Care Disparities: The Impact of Rural Residence

 Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

Overcoming Geographical Barriers in Endometrial Cancer Care

Transcript:

Lisa:

What ongoing clinical trials are investigating novel therapies for advanced endometrial cancer? And can you provide some insights into any promising experimental treatments that have shown encouraging results in early phase trials?

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff: 

Absolutely. So I think that the use of immunotherapy in endometrial cancer has been a true game changer.  It has changed the landscape of how we think about treating this disease. I think the cutting edge now is to try and understand whether immunotherapy in combination with our more traditional chemotherapy, cytotoxic chemotherapies that basically kill cells rapidly dividing as compared to immunotherapy, which helps to kill cancer cells by using the immune system. So should we be using immunotherapy in addition to, or even instead of some of those traditional chemotherapy options? There are also many, many clinical trials that are investigating novel combinations and novel targeted agents, especially for the high-risk tumor subsets.

So endometrial cancer is a broad umbrella term for many different subtypes. And the higher risk subtypes often are those that are harder to treat with our standard therapies. And so many trials are specifically trying to target better options for these patients. I think that one trial that I will just highlight in addition to some of the immunotherapies are immune therapy combinations with what are called anti-angiogenics. So drugs that try to prevent the tumor from growing its own blood supply.

And then also immunotherapy in combination with another class of drugs called PARP inhibitors which are more commonly used in ovarian cancer but which in combination with immunotherapy may be a new avenue for effective treatment.

Lisa:

And do you have an activation tip for patients for that question?

 Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

Absolutely, so I think that my activation tip for patients surrounding novel therapies in endometrial cancer is to understand what clinical trials are available to your physician and to you at the place that you are currently getting treated. And then also understand more globally what other clinical trials might be out there.

And that’s a great question to ask your physician. I think that your physician can help you to decide is a standard of care therapy the right choice for you at this point in your treatment, in your cancer journey, or are you at a point where a clinical trial may be of benefit either because of the expected efficacy of the standard of care, or because of the potential benefits of that clinical trial, or even because of the side effect profiles of either of those options.

Share Your Feedback