Improving Access To Cancer Care Starts With Education
- In a wide-ranging conversation with SurvivorNet, Dr. Ali Çimen, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Medical Affairs at pharmaceutical and biotch company GSK, offers a clear window into how the company is thinking about communication across its growing oncology portfolio.
- Across diseases like multiple myeloma and endometrial cancer, GSK’s communication strategy emphasizes not just scientific novelty, but how treatments fit into real-world care — how they are administered, who needs to be involved, and what they mean for a patient’s quality of life.
- “For us, it’s also about accessibility,” Dr. Çimen says. “Can this be given in the community? Can it be administered close to where the patient lives? Can it extend life without pulling patients out of their life?”
- Most cancer patients are treated in community hospitals, not major academic cancer centers, so making sure the doctors in these hospitals are educated about developing treatments is a crucial focus for GSK.
Dr. Çimen is a physician by training, has spent nearly two decades in industry, and now oversees medical affairs across GSK’s oncology programs globally. Medical affairs is the division of a drugmaker that is responsible for communicating and educating doctors and physicians about the company’s products. Dr. Çimen also speaks from a more personal place, noting that a close family member was recently diagnosed with cancer — an experience that sharpened his focus on what patients need from modern cancer care.
Read More“We are not treating mechanisms of action. We are treating patients”
– Dr. Ali Çimen
In multiple myeloma, for example, Dr. Çimen highlighted why so-called BCMA-targeting therapies such as BLENREP (belantamab mafodotin-blmf) represent more than another option in a crowded landscape. While the disease remains incurable, he notes that patients often cycle through multiple classes of drugs, creating an urgent need for therapies with new mechanisms and manageable logistics.
SurvivorNet’s experts frequently mention that evaluating the options for myeloma patients, the sequencing of treatment, and the availability of therapies is a major source of confusion and thus an educational focus for patients, their doctors, and pharmaceutical companies.
What is Blenrep?
BLENREP (belantamab mafodotin-blmf) is a targeted therapy for multiple myeloma that delivers chemotherapy directly to cancer cells using a BCMA-seeking antibody. Put another way, a BCMA-seeking antibody is a treatment component that acts like a guided missile, locking onto BCMA — a marker found mainly on myeloma cells — so the therapy can attack cancer cells while limiting harm to healthy cells.
Efficacy Alone Isn’t Enough
“For us, it’s also about accessibility,” Dr. Çimen says. “Can this be given in the community? Can it be administered close to where the patient lives? Can it extend life without pulling patients out of their life?”
Dr. Çimen repeatedly returns to the reality mentioned above: most cancer patients are treated in community settings, not at major academic centers.
“In countries like the United States, more than 70% of patients are treated in the community. They are not going to centers of excellence,” he explains.
Community oncologists may see only a handful of patients with a specific cancer each year. With developing therapies and approaches, they need clear, practical guidance which includes context, not just data. They need to understand not only what works, but how to use it safely and confidently.
“This is why our education efforts look different,” Dr. Çimen explains. “It’s not just about efficacy. It’s about appropriate use. Safe use.”
Education, Access & Making Systemic Changes
One of the clearest examples of this thinking shows up in how GSK approaches therapies with unique side effect profiles.
In the case of antibody-drug conjugates like BLENREP, ocular side effects require coordination beyond the oncology clinic. Dr. Çimen was candid about this challenge — and about how solvable it is.
“It’s not enough to have the eye care professional available,” he explains. “They also need to understand ADC-related side effects. And the oncologist needs a system — not to struggle to find help, but to already have a network in place.”
Rather than leaving that burden on physicians or patients, GSK has focused on supporting coordination of care, including education for eye-care professionals and partnerships with professional associations.
“This is not a standard oncology launch,” Dr. Çimen says. “It requires a different approach.”
A Portfolio of Progress
That same mindset carries across GSK’s broader oncology portfolio.
In endometrial cancer, Dr. Çimen describes how immune checkpoint inhibitors have reshaped outcomes in a disease where five-year survival was once devastatingly low. He pointed to dostarlimab as an example of progress that combines survival benefit with evolving flexibility. It’s being studied in combination with chemotherapy, and in some settings without it.
“What excites me is not only extending life, but improving the quality of life in those additional years,” he explains.
GSK’s pipeline reflects a long-term commitment to oncology, Dr. Çimen explains, with ongoing work in ovarian, colorectal, lung, gastrointestinal, and prostate cancers, as well as hematologic diseases like myelofibrosis and myelodysplastic syndromes.
“It takes time. It takes risk,” he said. “But this is how meaningful progress is made.”
Care That Fits The Patients
SurvivorNet often hears from patients who are confused and concerned about to access — and even how to begin conversations about getting the latest cancer treatments.
They want treatments that work — but also treatments they can reasonably access. They want doctors who feel confident using new therapies. And they want care that fits into their lives, not the other way around.
Dr. Çimen sums up his motivation simply.
“What excites me is being a source of hope — not just giving patients more time, but helping them live during that time,” he says.
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