Patients & Families
At Karyopharm, patients are at the core of everything we do. They inspire us, keep us motivated, and are critical in our pursuit of developing important new medicines. We are also committed to elevating and sharing the voice of patients. As real patients tell their stories, we are hopeful that their experiences can provide the patient and caregiver communities with inspiration, guidance, and a sense of familiarity as they navigate their own journeys.
Meet Adrienne: Knowledge is Power
No one ever thinks about what they stand for really, until you find your purpose. And I think having this cancer gave me one. Before endometrial cancer, I had never heard of it, and no one in my community had heard of it, so I felt it was my duty to speak up as an African-American woman and get involved in advocacy groups.
Adrienne
Having overcame both ovarian and endometrial cancer, Adrienne is no stranger to educating herself on treatment options and preparing herself to have important conversations with her treatment team.
When Adrienne was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she felt there was a clear disconnect between cancer patients and their healthcare providers when it came to the how’s and why’s for not only treatment options, but the causes of her cancer. Adrienne knew that she needed to bridge this gap, and after beating her ovarian cancer she sought out to help others and speak on what it meant to be an advocate for yourself.
Adrienne is making a tremendous impact in the field of educating others on how to build effective communications between patients and healthcare professionals, and how to make sure patients go into a diagnosis prepared as they can be. Not only does Adrienne advocate for cancer patients but she has also partnered with the Georgia Ovarian Cancer Alliance and Survivors Teaching Students program to share her experience and story with gyn-oncology medical students.
Her advocacy efforts didn’t stop there. In 2018 Adrienne also became a community liaison and steering committee member with the advocacy group, Endometrial Cancer Action Network for African Americans (ECANA). ECANA is a community building space around endometrial cancer in African American women and it speaks directly to racial disparities in the disease, and hosts a website that supports the most immediate patient questions and the most common terminologies around cancer therapies.
Adrienne is also an endometrial cancer representative for the NRG Patient Advocate and Uterine cancer communities. Through this partnership, she has opportunities to participate in knowledge-based, co-learning activities that address health disparities and effective clinician/patient relationships to clarify the role of research while addressing misinformation that has negatively affected survival outcomes for women in marginalized communities.