EBMT 2024 | Overcoming barriers to treating older patients with myeloma
Sergio Giralt, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, provides an overview of the existing barriers to treating older patients with multiple myeloma. Aside from socio-economic constraints, there are surmountable educational barriers that should be addressed, and Dr Giralt suggests that misconceptions remain regarding older patients being ineligible for various treatments. Accordingly, treating physicians alongside patients must be educated, in order to confer full benefit from the treatment modalities available. This interview took place at the 50th Annual Meeting of the EBMT in Glasgow, Scotland.
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Transcript (edited for clarity)
So I think there are, you know, there are social, economic barriers in the United States, insurance being one. But I think there are other barriers that are, I would say, much easier to overcome. There’s physician bias, and many of our community oncologists are unaware of or do not really understand how to be able to refer a patient for cell therapy. There’s still the perception that older patients are not good candidates for allogeneic transplant or autologous transplant...
So I think there are, you know, there are social, economic barriers in the United States, insurance being one. But I think there are other barriers that are, I would say, much easier to overcome. There’s physician bias, and many of our community oncologists are unaware of or do not really understand how to be able to refer a patient for cell therapy. There’s still the perception that older patients are not good candidates for allogeneic transplant or autologous transplant. There’s still the perception, and this is the one we need to overcome, that many of these cell therapies are only used for patients with very advanced diseases. And now what we know is that these treatments can actually work better for patients with earlier in the course of their disease. So we need to educate our physician base. We also need to educate the patients. Many patients still think I’m too old for this, or I’m going to be too sick from this, and they don’t understand the potential benefits of it.
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