Search

11039 Background: Participation in mentorship programs for early career physicians may be crucial to developing key skills and professional networks to navigate racial, ethnic and gender leadership disparities in medicine. A 6-month virtual facilitated peer mentorship program was developed and piloted through the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Women & Diversity Committee. The evaluation of the program’s feasibility to positively impact early career physicians, investigators and trainees is presented here. Methods: We designed and conducted a virtual mentoring program pilot open to SNO’s multidisciplinary members in residency, fellowship, or early career phase, leveraging peer-mentoring sessions with mid-to late-career physician mentors. A curriculum with online resources was provided recommending groups meet for 6 sessions: 3 involving the mentor and 3 dedicated to peer-mentoring. Group assignments were based on time-zones and interests. Pre- and post-participation surveys assessed mentee experience. Descriptive statistics were used to assess participant demographics and survey results. Results: Our call for participation was broad; all 20 mentee applicants participated in 5 groups. Mentees were 90% women and 60% were from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Most were aged 31-40 (75%) and junior faculty (50%) in neuro-oncology (65%). The 5 senior mentors (3 men and 3 of diverse race and ethnic backgrounds) practiced either neuro-oncology (3), neurosurgery (1) or radiation oncology (1). The proportion who reporting having a signature lecture increased from 15% to 62% during the pilot. A large majority reported their participation was worthwhile (85%), that they would participate again (92%) and would recommend it to others (92%). Feedback themes included positive personal growth, peer support, networking and job opportunities, access to CV reviews, lack of and desire for late career female mentors, and virtual scheduling constraints. While the pilot was limited by several variables, it was timely to connect participants in Q3 of 2020 early in the COVID-19 global pandemic. The virtual meeting environment created a venue to share and discuss topics such as work-life balance, burnout, leading through change and social connection. Despite not achieving 100% professional concordance, participants found the experience worthwhile. The tools and curriculum of topics provided was implemented differently across groups, leading to varied experiences. Finally, we did not have 100% post pilot follow up despite multiple attempts limiting our complete understanding of the pilot. Conclusions: This virtual mentorship pilot program proved feasible and of value in development of early career women and diverse individuals. A resource toolkit has been designed to scale and diffuse.

2540 Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) in elderly patients differ molecularly as compared to younger patients, and may have increased angiogenic activity. Bevacizumab (BV) is an anti-angiogenic monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor. We conducted a clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of BV and temozolomide (TMZ) for elderly patients with a new diagnosis of GBM, while deferring radiotherapy. Methods: This is a phase II, single-arm, multicenter, open label trial. Eligible patients have a tissue diagnosis of GBM with no treatment other than surgery, age ≥ 70, KPS ≥ 60, and adequate organ function. TMZ was initiated within 2 weeks of surgery and BV was initiated within 4 weeks thereafter. TMZ was administered at 150-200 mg/m2/day for 5 days every 4 weeks and BV at 10mg/kg every 2 weeks. A historical control group of 42 patients with similar criteria who received concurrent TMZ and RT followed by adjuvant TMZ, was derived for comparison from an institutional patient database. The primary endpoint is overall survival (OS) and secondary endpoints are progression-free-survival and safety. Results: 50 patients were enrolled from June 2010 to January 2016. Median age is 75 (range 70-87), and median KPS is 80 (range 60-100). 17 patients had a biopsy only, 26 patients have MGMT promoter methylation, and all patients are IDH wildtype. The study and control group are well matched in terms of age and molecular markers, however, the study patients had worse initial KPS and higher baseline tumor volume. At time of analysis, all but 2 patients were deceased. The median OS was 12.6 months for study patients (95% CI, 10.9-15.9 months) and 16.3 months for control patients (95% CI, 12.9-22.4 months). In a multivariate Cox analysis, baseline tumor volume (HR = 2.6, p = 0.0001) and MGMT promoter methylation (HR = 0.49, p = 0.004) were significant prognostic markers. Treatment type did not have a significant impact on OS (HR = 1.5, p = 0.14). Treatment-related serious adverse events included: pulmonary embolism (5), cerebral hemorrhage (3), pneumonia (1), intestinal perforation (1), deep venous thrombosis (6), hypertension (2), atrial fibrillation (1), congestive heart failure (1), cardio-respiratory arrest (1), lymphopenia (2), thrombocytopenia (8), and neutropenia (5). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest for patients with newly diagnosed GBM age ≥70 and KPS ≥60, treatment with BV and TMZ is equivalent to standard chemoradiotherapy, and has tolerable side effects. Complete endpoint analysis will be presented with the poster. Clinical trial information: NCT01149850 .