Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals experience significant healthcare disparities across the oncology spectrum of care. Systemic barriers, past harmful healthcare experiences and sociopolitical climate, and other impediments to accessing health care among others, combine to influence these disparities. TGD individuals undergoing gender-affirming mastectomy (‘top surgery’) face unique challenges related to breast cancer risk assessment and screening. Currently, a patient can undergo top surgery without understanding how that procedure will affect their lifelong breast and chest cancer risk – and critically, without knowing if they carry predispositions that could fundamentally reshape their surgical decisions.

 

A new study by researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine has identified critical barriers that influence healthcare professionals' integration of cancer risk evaluation, within the context of gender-affirming mastectomy and pre-surgical planning. They include clear institutional accountability, harmonized evidence-based guidelines, standardized care pathways and embedded genetic counseling in multidisciplinary gender-affirming care teams. These findings mirror what patients reported in a previous companion study – that they lack clear information before and after surgery.

Chandramouli (“Chand”) Chandrasekaran, PhD, assistant professor of anatomy & neurobiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and psychological and brain sciences at the University’s College of Arts and Sciences, has received a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Recipients receive a minimum of $400,000 over a five-year period for research and education. 

A study of more than 128,000 U.S. adults found that those who experienced parental divorce during childhood had 41% higher odds of depression in adulthood than those whose parents remained married. Yet the findings suggest that parental divorce itself may not be the main driver of later depression.

The American College of Chest Physicians recently released a new clinical guideline on managing adult bronchiectasis with 13 evidence-based recommendations.