Aliya Rashid, DO, MPH, on Addressing Gender Inequality in Pivotal CAR T-Cell Trial Paper Authorship

“I think that, overall, it needs to be a cultural shift. I think that just raising awareness about this is a great way to trigger some sort of conversation or even just the thought that, hey, why aren't there as many females in hematology? I think that's the most important thing, shifting how we perceive women in this field.”

Over 70% of authors were male and less than 30% were female out of the 13 pivotal trials that led to the approval of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), lymphoma, and myeloma that were published between 2017-2022. These findings were investigated by a group at the University of Kansas Medical Center and were presented in a poster at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, held December 9-12, in San Diego, California.

The researchers also found that in the last couple of years there has been a trend of improved gender equality in authorship, but the findings may still reflect lower female representation in transplant and cellular therapy fields. CGTLive spoke with study coauthor Aliya Rashid, DO, MPH, internal medicine resident physician, University of Kansas Medical Center, to get her thoughts on possible strategies to bring this issue to attention and begin to equalize the field of opportunity between male and female doctors and researchers.

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REFERENCE
Khaliq A, Wesson W, Logan E, et al. The glass wall: Gendered authorship disparities in in CD 19 and BCMA CAR-T clinical trials for lymphoma and myeloma. Presented at: ASH 2023 Annual Meeting & Exposition. December 9-12; San Diego, CA. Abstract #2344