IJGC Podcast

Novel High-Grade Serous Ovarian Morphologic Classification with Anil K. Sood

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. Anil K. Sood to discuss novel high-grade serous ovarian morphologic classification. Dr. Sood is a Professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is Co-Director of the multi-disciplinary Blanton-Davis Ovarian Cancer Research Program and co-leads the Ovarian Cancer Moonshot Program. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the Association of American Physicians (AAP), and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
Highlights:
- High grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) could be classified into two gross morphologic subtypes.
- Type I and type II morphologic subtypes differed with respect to clinical outcomes.
- The two morphologic subtypes also differed with regard to transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic profiles.

“Impact of Transfusions on Outcomes in Ovarian Cancer” with Lauren Prescott

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Lauren Prescott to discuss the impact of transfusions on outcomes in ovarian cancer. Dr. Prescott received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and went on study at the National Institutes of Health for two years. She then completed medical school at Georgetown University, residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She has been at Vanderbilt University since 2017. Dr. Prescott's research interests include measuring and evaluating surgical and oncologic outcomes and improving the quality of health care delivery through implementation of evidence-based medicine. Dr. Prescott leads the Vanderbilt Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Program for patients undergoing gynecologic surgery.
Highlights:
- Perioperative blood transfusions in ovarian cancer is common with 53% of patients in our study having received a transfusion
- Blood transfusions were not associated with negative impact on progression-free survival or overall survival
- However, blood transfusions were associated with increased peri-operative morbidity without improvements in quality of life

Revisited: ”Featured Mentor’s Podcast: Christina Fotopoulou”

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Professor Christina Fotopoulou. Professor Fotopoulou works at the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, UK. She is an elected ESGO council member and Chair of the ESGO guidelines committee.
Highlights:
- Early support from mentors and "giants" in the field, national and international networking and early focusing/specialization in the field of interest are keys to success
- Try to turn your weaknesses and failures to learning points and opportunities to make you stronger
- Hard work, kindness and caring for patients, team spirit, professionalism and dedication are the main keys of success next to any talent and luck that anyone might be fortunate enough to have

Revisited: ”Featured Mentor’s Podcast: Andrea du Bois”

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Professor Andrea du Bois. Prof du Bois completed his medical degree in 1987 at the University of Freiburg, Germany. He subsequently trained in general surgery at Krankenhaus Wolfach Personalwohnheim and gynaecology and obstetrics at the University of Freiburg, leading to his registration as Fellow for Gynaecology and Obstetrics in 1993.
In 1993, Prof. du Bois became a Consultant in the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at St. Vincentius-Kliniken, Karlsruhe. He then served as Director of the Department of Gynaecology and Gynaecologic Oncology, Horst-Schmidt-Kliniken, Wiesbaden (1999-2010) before taking up his current roles as Director of the Department of Gynaecology and Gynaecologic Oncology at Kliniken Essen-Mitte, and Associate Professor at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany.
Prof. du Bois has been the Principal Investigator of several pivotal and practice-changing international clinical trials in gynaecological oncology. He founded the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gynaekologische Onkologie (AGO) Study Group in 1993 and co-founded the European Network of Gynaecological Oncological Trial groups (ENGOT) in 2007. He has previously been a member of the German Guideline Committee for guidelines in breast, cervical, and ovarian cancer, Chairman of the German quality assurance programme for ovarian cancer (QS-OVAR), and member of the Gynecological Cancer InterGroup (GCIG) executive board and European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) council. Prof. du Bois has been Chairman and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Ovarian Cancer Consensus Conference of the GCIG, and served as a member of the Scientific Committee of the 1st European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO)-ESGO Ovarian Cancer Consensus Conference 2018. Prof. du Bois is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), ESGO, International Gynecologic Cancer Society (ISGC), German Cancer Society, and AGO. He has authored more than 500 publications with more than 33,500 citations, and has a Google Scholar h index of 86.
Prof. du Bois has received multiple honours and awards in recognition for his work, including the Arthur Walpole Award (German Cancer Society, 2006), Ernst Wertheim Award (Austrian Society of Gynecologic Oncology, 2006), MD Anderson Madrid Lifetime Award (2016), Wilhelm-Warner Prize for Cancer Research (2019), German Cancer Prize (Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft, 2020) and honorary membership of the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics (2020); 2021 he received the ESGO Lifetime Achievement Award (European Society of Gynaecological Oncology).

Mentor’s Podcast: Anna Fagotti

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. Anna Fagotti. Dr. Fagotti is the director of the ovarian cancer unit at the A. Gemelli IRCCS University Hospital Foundation, ESGO President Elect and member of the ESGO Executive Committee, and Editor of the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.
Highlights:
-Always practice your skills if you want to excel in minimally invasive surgery: Practice makes perfect.
-The journey is long for a gynecologic oncologist. We can’t foresee the future and plans might have to be adjusted along the way, so try to be flexible on what you have beside you. Try to answer the relevant clinical questions. Don’t create a question just to answer.
-There can be difficulties along the way, but look forward and focus on your aim and don’t get stopped by obstacles. Remember to try to enjoy everything.

Peritoneal Carcinomatosis after MIS in Cervical Cancer with Dr. Jorge Hoegl

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. Jorge Hoegl to discuss peritoneal carcinomatosis after minimally invasive surgery in cervical cancer. Dr. Jorge Hoegl is an early career gynecologic oncologist at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the General Hospital of the East “Dr. Domingo Luciani” in Caracas, Venezuela.
Highlights:
-Peritoneal carcinomatosis represented more than 15% of all recurrences, with a recurrence rate of 22.2% in minimally invasive surgery compared to 8.8%.
-Peritoneal carcinomatosis has been frequently grouped within distant recurrences and perhaps this made it not such a notorious fact.
-Peritoneal carcinomatosis does not appear to be an unusual recurrence pattern associated with cervical cancer and it should be reported separately.

SUCCOR: Validation of ESGO Quality Indicators Cervical Cancer with Félix Boria

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. Félix Boria to discuss the validation of ESGO quality indicators for cervical cancer. Mr. Boria is an attending physician of the gynecologic oncology division at the University of Navarra (Madrid, Spain) under the mentorship of Dr. Luis Chiva. He is currently finishing his PhD at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid about PET/CT and advanced ovarian cancer.
Highlights:
- Women who were operated on centers with high compliance of quality indicators had significant lower risk of relapse (HR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.25 to 0.61; p- The rate of adjuvant treatment in Europe is surprisingly high, especially in low compliance centers (48%). Future investigations should try to address if we are overtreating patients with cervical cancer.

Molecular Classification of Endometrial Cancer with Drs. Ilaria Betella and Francesco Multinu

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Drs. Ilaria Betella and Francesco Multinu. Dr. Betella is an attending in the Department of Gynecologic Surgery at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan. Her research focuses on molecular classification of endometrial cancer and on hereditary gynecologic cancer syndromes. Dr. Multinu is a gynecologic oncologist at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan as well as a research collaborator in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His special research interests include surgical and postoperative treatment of endometrial cancer.
Highlights:
- There is evidence that the new molecular classification will be the future in the management of endometrial cancer.
- The implementation of molecular analysis allows oncologists to reallocate to a different risk class 6.8% of endometrial cancers that otherwise would have been misclassified and consequently undertreated or overtreated.
- The interpretation of molecular classification requires a validated hierarchical algorithm, for which POLE analysis is essential: Even though POLE testing has not been implemented in many institutions, there is no way to use part of the molecular analysis and completely escape POLE analysis.
- According to the new algorithm proposed by Dr. Betella et al., POLE analysis could be spared in 67% of patients and reserved only for those in whom the incorporation of the molecular classification could change the risk class attribution and post-operative management.

TOTEM Trial with Paolo Zola

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Paolo Zola to discuss the TOTEM trial. For 20 years, Dr. Zola has been Chair of Gynaecological Oncology in the Department of Surgical Sciences of the University of Turin (Italy). Dr. Zola has conducted a large number of national and international randomized clinical trials in order to optimize the treatments for women diagnosed with gynaecological cancers. He has served as a member of the board of the EORTC Gynaecological Cancer Group and of the ESGO. Dr. Zola chairs the gynaecological cooperative group within the Oncological Network in Piedmont Region, and his research has been reported in more than 400 manuscripts published in peer reviewed literature.
Highlights:
- To perform the follow up in patients treated for endometrial cancer, the cornerstone is the clinical control.
- In low-risk patients, surveillance every 6 months is appropriate.
- In high-risk patients a clinical examination every 4 months for 2 years and then every 6 is recommended.
- In addition, our data suggest taking a CT after 12 and 20 months after the primary treatment.

Ovarian Preservation in Grade 2 or 3 Endometrial Cancer with Dimitrios Nasioudis

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. Dimitrios Nasioudis to discuss ovarian preservation in grade 2 or 3 endometrial cancer. Dr. Nasioudis is a Gynecologic Oncology Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. His current research focuses on translational therapeutics and population-based research.
Highlights:
- For premenopausal patients with endometrial cancer, ovarian preservation is not associated with worse oncologic outcomes for those with grade 1 tumors. However, safety of ovarian preservation for grade 2 or 3 tumors is not established.
- Ovarian preservation was not associated with worse overall survival for patients with grade 2 or 3 endometrioid tumors.
-Ovarian preservation may be considered for carefully selected patients with grade 2 tumors.