What Experts Are Involved in Renal Medullary Carcinoma Care?
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Kimryn Ratthmell
In this program:
Renal medullary carcinoma care involves a team of experts. Watch as expert Dr. Kimryn Rathmell from Vanderbilt University Medical Center gives an overview of the team members integral in RMC diagnosis and patient care.
Transcript
Dr. Kimryn Rathmell: When we had our first meeting of interested individuals with renal medullary carcinoma, so five or six years ago, we decided that there just was not enough of a community. And a handful of us were talking about renal medullary carcinoma, so we all gathered together, and we intentionally brought in people from a diverse range of specialties, so oncologists for sure. This is a disease you treat with chemotherapy, so oncologists are invested here, but it is affecting the kidneys, so nephrologists are involved because of the association with the hemoglobinopathy, hematologists often know these patients and are very involved in their care. Pathologists, so we often forget pathologists, because they're in the background reviewing these cases, we think actually one of the most important parts of making an impact here for renal medullary carcinoma is educating pathologists to raise the red flag that this might be a renal medullary carcinoma, because those of us on the treating side, who have a high level of awareness. We see far too many patients who were just told they had renal cell carcinoma, and then we look at them, and they're a 25-year-old with sickle cell trait we say, “Come on, let's go back and look. I bet this is a renal medullary carcinoma.”
So we need the pathologist to be aware and to be raising that possibility, even if they don't have the final end diagnosis so pathologists are really important, geneticists as well as we try to understand the impact of this trait on a family or this disease on a family, and then radiologists and neurologists as well. So it's a big group, so we brought all of these groups together, and that actually was the start of the RMC, Renal Medullary Carcinoma Alliance, and I think one of the things that's lended staying power to this group is that there are so many different people that are interested. So an individual patient probably will have medical oncologists and nephrologists and a urologist all involved in managing their care, but behind the scenes, there will be a radiologist and a pathologist who are highly engaged as well.
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