In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Drs. Katherina Grette and Nathaniel Jones to discuss racial inequities in immunotherapy trials and their article, “Not immune to inequity: minority under-representation in immunotherapy trials for breast and gynecologic cancers,” which is the Lead Article in IJGC’s November 2021 issue.

(https://ijgc.bmj.com/content/early/2021/09/21/ijgc-2021-002557)

Dr. Katherine Grette attended medical school at the University of Washington, then completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of South Alabama prior to joining faculty. She currently practices as a generalist and serves as the Assistant Director of Resident Research for the department.

Dr. Nate Jones completed residency at Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville, NC followed by fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at New York Presbyterian Hospitals: Columbia and Cornell. He currently serves as Assistant Professor in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of South Alabama Mitchell Cancer Institute. His research interests center on targeted cancer therapies, molecular and genomic characteristics of gynecologic malignancies, and addressing racial disparities in gynecologic cancer care.

Highlights

•Minority women are poorly represented in immunotherapy clinical trials for breast and gynecologic cancers

•Enrollment of black women is especially low, accounting for only 5% of participants

•Minority participation in clinical trials must increase to improve equity in health outcomes