Related Programs:

Current Endometrial Cancer Treatment Approaches

Where Do Clinical Trials Fit Into an Endometrial Cancer Plan?

Questions to Ask About Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials

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Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:  

Are there endometrial cancer treatment developments that patients should know about? 

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

Yes. So, I think within literally the past year/two years, we’ve had some truly groundbreaking work that has changed the way all of us practice in GYN oncology, and that is specifically around this immunotherapy. So, it used to be that we would save immunotherapy for when someone’s cancer had returned. So, they would get their initial, for example, chemotherapy if they needed it, and then, when the cancer came back, that’s when we would start thinking about immunotherapy. 

There are now two big randomized controlled trials, which is sort of our best data, that tells us that adding immunotherapy in the first line, meaning when someone is first diagnosed, if their cancer has spread outside the uterus, that adding immunotherapy at that point can be really helpful for certain patients, and so, I would say that as an avenue of treatment – understanding is immunotherapy right for me, why or why not – is kind of my second takeaway for patients. 

Katherine Banwell:  

You mentioned trials. Are there ongoing trials that are showing promise? 

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

Absolutely. I think it is an incredible time to be a GYN oncologist because the field is advancing so rapidly. 

I think that now, we are really focused on some of these molecular pathways to try and not only understand which patients should we be giving these therapies to, who are they most effective in, which patients can we actually be pulling back, who has a better prognosis, so we may not need to give them the toxicity level that comes with all of the standard chemotherapy options, and then, also, are there drug combinations that may work better for patients, and how do we choose which combination therapies we should use. And so, I think that there are a lot of really exciting clinical trials going on in endometrial cancer right now. 

Katherine Banwell:  

Dr. Hinchcliff, what areas of research are you focused on? 

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

So, I have spent a lot of my research time working in immunotherapy. As you can tell, I’m pretty jazzed about it. I think it really has changed the game in terms of cancer care. And so, a lot of my work centers around the use of immunotherapy in gynecologic cancers. 

I also am very interested in looking at how we can better understand a cancer’s response to treatment. As we give treatment, often, endometrial cancer doesn’t have an easy blood test to say, “My cancer’s getting better,” so we kind of have to wait until we get a CT scan, which we usually do three months apart, and so, there are some newer blood tests out there that we’re trying to understand how to use and how to best leverage for our cancer patients, and that allows us to potentially switch treatments sooner if something isn’t working, or choose a better treatment up front, depending on which test we’re looking at. So, that’s really where my research centers. 

Katherine Banwell:  

Is there anything you’d like to add about the evolution of endometrial cancer care? What are you excited about? 

Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:  

I think I am really excited that our field has made this big switch to focusing on some of these molecular aspects. It has always been so hard to treat all endometrial cancer with one hammer-and-nail-type pairing, and now we’re able to be a little bit more nuanced with our tools, and that’s always a really exciting place to be. I also think that it’s really important to highlight some of the disparities that still exist in endometrial cancer, and honestly in cancer more generally, and I think that we as a field are starting to really highlight that and understand – or at least try to understand – how can we better provide care to every single patient who is diagnosed with an endometrial cancer.