As the founder of the LGBTQ+ Coordination of Care Consult Service and co-chair for the LGBTQI+ Clinical Advisory Committee (CAC) at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in New York, NY, Kelly Haviland, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, an advanced practice provider manager of professional development, is combatting the systemic disparities that LGBTQI+ patients with cancer face in accessing care.

Transgender individuals often experience poor health outcomes, particularly when it comes to cancer. Compared with cisgender individuals, transgender individuals may be diagnosed with cancer at later stages, be less likely to receive treatment, and have worse survival for many cancer types. The disparities extend to survivorship, where transgender people report significant unmet needs, including lack of coordination between gender-affirming care and cancer care, oncology clinician understanding of transgender patient care needs, and transgender-specific resources.

Fumarate hydratase deficiency occurs in individuals who have homozygous pathogenic variants in the tumor suppressor FH gene. The condition results in poor feeding, failure to thrive, hypotonia, lethargy, and seizures. Development is severely delayed, and individuals are often nonverbal, unable to walk, and die in early childhood.

In an open-label, multicenter, multicohort study that included 90 patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who had received at least two prior lines of systemic therapy, 60% of patients receiving treatment with mosunetuzumab-axgb achieved a complete response and 80% had an overall response. On December 22, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted mosunetuzumab-axgb accelerated approval based on those findings.

Nearly 60% of patients with cancer turn to herbal supplements for symptom relief, but patient-physician communication about that use remains inadequate. Unsupervised herbal use can lead to adverse events and herb-drug interactions for patients during active treatment. Many physicians and providers also lack sufficient knowledge about herbal supplements to help patients make informed decisions.