Joseph Mikhael, MD, Examines Need for Diversity in Myeloma Clinical Trials

Jospeh Mikhael, MD, professor of Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope; chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation; and councilor of the American Society of Hematology Executive, spoke with CancerNetwork® racial disparities in multiple myeloma. In particular, he discussed efforts that are being made to feature more diverse clinical trial populations, and make novel treatments more accessible.

Transcript:

It’s wonderful to make note of the fact that so much is going on in multiple myeloma. So many of these great therapies are being developed, be it bispecific therapies or CAR T cell therapies. The other area that is always important for me to mention that I believe so wholeheartedly about is that, despite these great advances, we still have a significant health disparities in multiple myeloma. We know that African Americans are twice as likely to have myeloma and sadly have half the survival of White patients in this country. Part of that is access to these newer therapies. We’ve been able to demonstrate that Black patients are less likely to get triplets [regimens], transplants, [access to clinical] trials, and CAR T-cell therapy. I am very enthusiastic about this research, but also raise a word of caution. At the same time, I’m thankful to see that many of these clinical trials, and many of the companies developing these agents are sensitive to this issue and are looking at ways that we can make these agents more accessible to all of our myeloma patients and not just to a certain subset based on geography, race, or background.