The Fellow on Call: The Heme/Onc Podcast

After several weeks of covering localized disease, this week, we shift our discussion to metastatic breast cancer, focusing first on ER+ disease. Content: - Importance of taking a biopsy at time of disease progression - What endocrine therapy backbone do we choose in metastatic ER+ disease? - What agents can we add to endocrine therapy for metastatic ER+ disease? - What is "visceral crisis"? ** Wa...

This week, we round out our discussion on the early stage breast cancer, turning our attention to the triple negative subtype. Once again, there are a lot of trials and data, but be sure to check out the show notes for the highlights! Content: - What is TNBC? -What is the data to support the use of neoadjuvant therapy in this disease? - What is "pathologic CR" and how is different than "residual c...

We continue on our journey through early stage breast cancer, this time turning our attention to HER2+ disease. There is a lot of data in this episode, as you will both hear and see. To make this easier, we highlight key takeaways to make understanding this even easier. Content: - What is HER2? - Discovery of trastuzumab - Data for use of trastuzumab in adjuvant and neoadjuvant setting - Data for...

This week’s episode is part 4 of 5 of a joint mini-series with our friends Two Onc Docs. In today’s episode, we will be recapping the current treatment of resectable NSCLC and discussing KEYNOTE 671, which was presented at ASCO 2023, looking at neoadjuvant chemo+immunotherapy followed by adjuvant immunotherapy. We also discuss the use of the “interaction test,” “multiplicity,” and it’s important r...

This week’s episode is part 2 of 5 of a joint mini-series with our friends Two Onc Docs. In today’s episode, we recap the current treatment of classical hodgkin’s lymphoma and then dive into the the SWOG 1826 plenary session abstract from the ASCO 2023 annual meeting. We also cover the concept of “p-values” and what it means when trials say “the median was not reached.” Content: - A quick recap of...

We are taking a small pause from our breast cancer series to discuss an important topic that is so critical to understand for clinical practice, no matter what discipline of medicine you are in: the fundamentals of transfusion medicine. This topic often shows up quite frequently on board exams, as well. In this episode, we talk about terms such as “type and screen” and more. Content: - What is a "...

Surprise! The teams at Two Onc Docs and The Fellow on Call are teaming up for his special series! Each episode will focus on a single abstract, poster, or oral presentation from ASCO 2023, and will feature a quick review of any guidelines and management pointers relevant to the disease state under study, followed by an overview of the study design and findings, and finally a discussion of the impl...

This week, we continue discussing the management of early stage ER+/HER2- breast cancer. If you have not done so already, be sure to check out Episode 057 for the first part of this discussion. Content: - Who warrants chemotherapy? - Who benefits from gene expression assays? - What are important gene expression assays used clinically? - Post-treatment surveillance and survivorship - Targeted agent...

After several weeks of incredible discussions with our special guests, it’s time that we dive into the medical oncology regarding breast cancer. We start our discussion with the first of our two-part discussion on early stage (AKA non-metastatic) ER+/HER2- breast cancer. Content: - What information do we need to consider in patients with HR+ breast cancer? -What is the role of chemotherapy? -If ch...

So much incredible progress has been made in the management and treatment of breast cancer, largely thanks to advances in available therapies and drugs. A good understanding of pharmacology is key to selecting the correct regimen and providing counseling to your patients. This week, are so fortunate to be joined by special guest Dr. Danielle Roman, PharmD, who is an Oncology Clinical Pharmacy Spec...

Surgery plays a pivotal role in the management of breast cancer, particularly in early stages of disease. This week, we are joined by special guest Dr. Carla Fisher, Associate Professor and Medical Director of Breast Surgical Oncology at Indiana University School of Medicine Content: - When to perform breast conservation surgery - When is additional imaging required? - Timing of neoadjuvant/adjuva...

The language of breast cancer can be confusing and very technical. In this episode, we help you learn and understand so many important words and phrases that have important implications on diagnosis and management. Understanding these will not only help you learn more about breast cancer, but it will also ensure you are better able to communicate the lingo to your patients! Content: - Definitions...

A critical part of breast cancer management is often the incorporation of radiation therapy. This week, we sat down with our special guest, Dr. Ryan Miller, who is a radiation oncology resident at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia who shared some super high yield points about how he approaches radiation planning in his patients with breast cancer. Content: - General guidance for...

The workup and management of breast cancer is complex! In this next series, we will dissect this topic inside and out. We will are so excited to be kicking off this series with special guest, Dr. Yasha Gupta to shed light on the role of our friendly breast radiologists and the very important role they/their team plays in the initial diagnosis and workup for a patient with a breast mass. Content: -...

We are kicking off our intermittent “Heme Consults Series” with a great overview of the approach to leukocytosis, a common question we get on the wards. In this episode, we talk about the initial steps we should take to triage these cases and what we should be thinking about in regards to next steps. Also - a huge shoutout to one of our listeners who had emailed us and said this is a common questi...

The Fellow on Call is thrilled to partner with so many of our podcasting friends be a part of #NephMadness 2023 this year. In today’s episode, we welcome three incredible guests to our show, Dr. Matthew Abramson, Dr. Timothy Yau, and Dr. Scott Stockholm, to talk about the two very critical topics in hematology/oncology. The first is a discussion about immune checkpoint inhibitor-related AKIs. The...

It’s been a long road, but incredibly educational journey, through our Myeloma Series. We finish off our series with a bang by sitting down with Multiple Myeloma Superstar, Dr. Manni Mohyuddin. In this episode, Dr. Mohyuddin takes us through his approach to complex decisions in the care of patients with myeloma, highlighting that myeloma treatment is an art in which we take imperfect data and try...

In episode 046, we discussed the fundamentals of transplant in the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma. This week, we sit down with two incredible hematologists who specialize in transplant to discuss the real-life decision-making that goes into evaluating each patient. We are so excited to welcome two special guests this week, Dr. Shonali Midha and Dr. Amar Kelkar, joining us from the Dan...

We continue our myeloma series, transitioning our discussion from autologous stem cell transplant to maintenance therapy for myeloma. Content: - Why do we use revlimid (lenalidomide) maintenance? - What about in high risk patients? - What is the role of MRD testing? - What about daratumumab in the maintenance setting? This episode has been sponsored by Primum. To sign up for a free account, check...

In this continuation of our myeloma series, we discuss all the key principles and data surrounding autologous stem cell transplant in myeloma. We provide a succinct summary of key trials in this space that will give you a deep understanding of the field. Content: - What are all these cooperative groups in the studies? - What are some of the important trials that show us the benefit of autologous s...

In this episode, we start with a little bit of story time about the history of myeloma treatments and how we got to the present day. We then finish off the episode with how this information helped us treat transplant ineligible patients. Content: - What is the history of myeloma treatment? How did we get to where we are today? - How do we approach treatment in transplant ineligible patients? - Wha...

In this continuation of our myeloma series, we build on our prior discussion about myeloma pharmacology, this time discussing how to select the optimal regimen for treatment of our patients. Content: - What are the phases of multiple myeloma treatment? - How do we determine transplant eligibility? - What does doublet, triplet, and quadruplet therapy mean? - What categorizes "high risk" myeloma? -...

In this continuation of our myeloma series, we begin our discussion about treatment options for multiple myeloma, focusing first on pharmacology. We are so thrilled to have a special guest, Kathryn Maples, PharmD, BCOP who is a clinical pharmacy specialist in Multiple Myeloma at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia! Content: - What are common drugs we use in "triple...

In this continuation of our myeloma series, we discuss the progression of MGUS & smoldering myeloma to multiple myeloma. We also outline how to risk stratify a patient with multiple myeloma and gauge their response to treatment.  Content: -What is the natural progression from MGUS to smoldering myeloma to multiple myeloma? - How do we risk stratify patients with a new myeloma diagnosis? -...

In today’s episode, we continue our myeloma series, this time we’ll delve deeper into the spectrum of plasma cell dyscrasias, including defining MGUS, discussing surveillance of MGUS, defining smoldering myeloma (SM). We are slowly inching our discussion towards the diagnosis of Multiple myeloma (MM)! Content: - Defining MGUS - Discussing risk of progression of MGUS to MM - How to interpret free l...