Colorectal Cancer Video Perspectives

In a video interview with Healio, Benjamin L. Schlechter, MD, attending physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, discussed:

• The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on colorectal cancer screening, particularly in underserved communities;
• Developments in colon cancer, such as checkpoint inhibitors in mismatch repair-deficient disease and the promise of cell therapies;
• Developments in rectal cancer, such the “unexpectedly positive,” but “also confusing” PRODIGE 23 results, the RAPIDO trial and other exciting studies in the total neoadjuvant therapy space;
• Challenges of addressing the decrease in CRC screening seen during the COIVD-19 pandemic and the hope that primary care physicians will do more stool testing;
• The increase of patients presenting with “bigger, scarier rectal cancers” in his practice;
• How clinicians can help “push all institutions to be open” regarding insurance barriers to boost access to care and screening and considerations on the policy-level to ensure equity;
• Lesser-known challenges in CRC, such as patients’ and doctors’ willingness to talk about uncomfortable things, like colonoscopy and rectal bleeding, in the primary care setting and the underutilization of rectal exams; and
• Conversations needed as a medical community on how to better use second opinion earlier in the course of care.