IJGC Podcast

Mentor’s Podcast: Andreas Obermair

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Andreas Obermair. Dr. Obermair is a gynecological oncologist in Brisbane, Australia, promoting surgery with proven better patient outcomes.
Highlights:
- Facing and dealing with adversity in life
- Goals for making gynecological oncology safer, less invasive, and smarter; ensuring that patients are not scared of treatment; and increasing the effectiveness of treatment
- Exploring novel options of therapy and seeking strategies for newer treatments. Only if we are not satisfied with what we do today can we hope to achieve a better outcome tomorrow.

Fertility-sparing Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in ＞4cm Cervical Cancer with Dr. David Viveros-Carreño

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. David Viveros-Carreño. Dr. Viveros-Carreño is a Gynecologic Oncologist at Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Clínica Universitaria Colombia and Clínica Los Nogales in Bogotá, Colombia.
Highlights:
- Fertility-sparing surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in cervical cancer >4 cm is feasible, but the evidence is limited and should be considered as an experimental intervention.
- A complete pathological response occurred in 56% of patients.
- At least one pregnancy was achieved in 67% of cases and 60% were pre-term deliveries.

End of Life Care in Gynecologic Oncology

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Katherine Hicks-Courant, MD, MSHP. Dr. Hicks-Courant is a fellow in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. She studies the intersection of gynecologic oncology, palliative care and oncology care delivery systems.
Highlights:
Having a gynecologic rather than a medical oncologist was associated with lower rates of high-intensity end-of-life care.
Having a gynecologic oncologist rather than a medical oncologist was associated with higher rates of invasive procedures.
Having a gynecologic oncologist rather than a medical oncologist was associated with higher Medicare spending.

Conservative Management of Cervical Cancer with Rene Pareja

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Rene Pareja to discuss conservative management of cervical cancer. Dr. Pareja is a gynecologist-oncologist at Astorga Oncology Clinic in Medellín and the National Cancer Institute in Bogotá, Colombia. He is a reviewer for more than 20 specialty journals, an Associate Editor for IJGC, a member of the Editorial Board of Gynecology Oncology, and a member of the board of directors of the International Gynecological Cancer Society (IGCS). Additionally, he is a member of FIGO committee on Women's Cancer. Dr. Pareja is the author of nine book chapters and more than 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and at IGCS 2021 he received an award for Community Advancement in Resource-Limited Settings.
Highlights:
1. Fertility preserving options have to be offered to all women wishing to preserve their fertility potential, that fulfil the ECOG status, histological, and imaging criteria.
2. It is recommended to have an evaluation by human reproduction specialized teams in order to rule out any potential impairment before the surgery.
3. The relapse rate for vaginal radical trachelectomy, abdominal radical trachelectomy and simple trachelectomy/conization are around 4-5%.
4. The highest live birth rates are seen in patients undergoing conization + lymph node assessment (over 88%).
5. Vaginal radical trachelectomy and minimally invasive radical trachelectomy, with preservation of ascendent branch of uterine artery, are contraindicated in women with tumors > 2 cm, due to the high rate of relapse (over 20%).

SOLO1-The 5-year Follow Up Data with Dr. Susana Banerjee

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Susana Banerjee to discuss SOLO1. Dr. Banerjee is a Consultant Medical Oncologist and Research Lead for the Gynaecology Unit. She is also Reader in Women’s Cancers at the Institute of Cancer Research. Dr Banerjee specialises in ovarian cancer and the systemic treatment of endometrial and cervical cancers.
Highlights:
- This report is the longest follow-up period for a PARP inhibitor in the newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer.
- The present analysis shows a PFS benefit that is sustained for several years following completion of 2 years of maintenance olaparib.
- PFS benefit was consistent irrespective of higher or lower clinical risk or BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.
- SOLO1 is the first to report longer-term follow-up for safety in patients with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer receiving a PARPi as maintenance treatment.
- The safety profile for patients in the maintenance olaparib remained consistent with that reported previously, with no new safety signals. Importantly, no additional cases of MDS or AML were reported.

The ALICE Trial with Glauco Baiocchi Neto

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Glauco Baiocchi. Dr. Baiocchi is the Director of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology at the AC Camargo Cancer Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Highlights:
-SLN biopsy has emerged as an accurate method for lymph node staging in endometrial cancer.
-Prospective studies aimed to analyze the performance of SLN biopsy in staging endometrial cancer rather than oncological outcomes.
-ALICE trial aims to confirm that SLN mapping without systematic node dissection does not negatively impact oncological outcomes.

Mentor’s Podcast: Jalid Sehouli

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Jalid Sehouli. Dr. Sehouli is director of the department of gynecology with center of oncological surgery at Charité Medical University in Berlin. He founded the first certified ovarian cancer center in 2007, published more than 500 articles, and is a teacher and a writer of several belletristic books.
Highlights:
Gynecology should be always holistic, interdisciplinary, and multi-professional.
Research in gynecology relies on teamwork, and international collaboration is essential.
The most relevant drug in medicine is communication!

Gender Imbalance in Authorship in Gynecologic Oncology

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Sarah Mah to discuss the gender imbalance in authorship in gynecologic oncology. Sarah Mah is a Gynecologic Oncology fellow at McMaster University who received her MSc in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety through the University of Toronto Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and completed residency at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests are in quality improvement with an equity and sustainability lens, knowledge translation, and cancer prevention.
Highlights:
Women now account for 55-70% of practicing Gynecologic Oncologists and >80% of Gynecologic Oncology fellows in the United States and Canada.
Rates of female first authorship in Gynecologic Oncology journals are rising in proportion, but rates of female senior authorship lag behind, with male authors still overrepresented.
Women remain underrepresented as members of Editorial Boards of Gynecologic Oncology journals, particularly in leadership positions.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet impacted the proportion of female authors, we discuss reasons for why this could be of future concern and the importance of ongoing surveillance.
We discuss some of the literature regarding gender inequity in academia and publishing and explore possible strategies for improvement.

Secondary Cytoreductive Surgery in Ovarian Cancer

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Robert Bristow, Prof. Christina Fotopoulou, and Dr. Myong Cheol Lim to discuss Secondary Cytoreductive Surgery in Ovarian Cancer. Dr. Bristow is Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. His clinical expertise and research interests focus on the surgical management of advanced-stage and recurrent ovarian cancer. Prof. Christina Fotopoulou has served as the Chair of Gynaecological Cancer Surgery at the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, UK. She has served as an elected ESGO council member and Chair of the ESGO guidelines committee. Dr. Myong Cheol Lim is a gynecologic oncologist, working for National Cancer Center Korea. He is fully dedicated to clinical research, including cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC for the management of ovarian cancer.
Highlights:
- This large meta-analysis on the value of secondary debulking showed that both complete as well as optimal cytoreductive surgery for ovarian cancer relapse significantly increased patients' overall survival.
- Median overall survival of a patients cohort increased by 9% and 7% when the complete and optimal cytoreductive rates increased by 10%, respectively, even after adjusting of other well established prognostic factors.
- Patients with ovarian cancer relapse should be evaluated for their eligibility for secondary debulking surgery in an effort to improve their survival.

The PARCER Trial with Supriya Chopra

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Supriya Chopra. Dr. Chopra is a Professor in Radiation Oncology at ACTREC, Tata Memorial Centre and Principal Investigator of the PARCER trial. Her research focus is to improve outcomes of cervical cancer through use of advanced radiation techniques in patients undergoing RT for both primary and recurrent metastatic cervical cancer. She also co-leads multi-institutional molecular translational research programme (BIOEMBRACE) for cervix cancer.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Postoperative Adjuvant Radiation in Cervical Cancer (PARCER), a phase III randomized trial, compared late toxicity after image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IG-IMRT) with three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) in women with cervical cancer undergoing postoperative radiation.
- IG-IMRT results in reduced toxicity with no difference in disease outcomes in cervical cancer.
- The 3-year cumulative incidence of grade ≥ 2 late GI toxicity in the IG-IMRT and 3D-CRT arms were 21.1% versus 42.4%.
- The cumulative incidence of grade ≥ 2 any late toxicity was 28.1% versus 48.9%.
- Patients reported reduced diarrhea (P = .04), improved appetite (P = .008), and lesser bowel symptoms (P = .002) with IG-IMRT.
- The 3-year pelvic relapse-free survival and disease-free survival in the IG-IMRT versus the 3D-CRT arm were 81.8% versus 84% and 76.9% versus 81.2%, respectively.