Access to treatment among patients with advanced kidney cancer in Mexico

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Background: The socioeconomic status of patients diagnosed with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) in developing countries could in many cases limit their access to the best available therapeutic options. We aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and access to treatment of Mexican patients with mRCC. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients with a histopathologically confirmed diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma who were treated at an oncology referral center in Northeast Mexico over a 5-year period. Results: We included 233 patients in the analysis, of whom 63% were men. The mean age at diagnosis was 58.2 years; 87% of the tumors were histopathologically classified as clear cell carcinoma. Regarding laterality, 54% of the tumors originated from the right kidney. The distribution of cases by clinical stage (CS) was as follows: CS I 15%, CS II 8%, CS III 17%, CS IV 60%. All of the included patients had government health insurance coverage; however, specific treatment for renal cell cancer was not included in this coverage. In terms of access to first-line systemic management in the 139 patients with advanced kidney cancer who were candidates for treatment, 29% received treatment with a single-drug tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), 4% were treated with combined or single-drug immunotherapy (IO), and 12% were treated with TKI combined with IO. All but one patient who was treated with a single drug or a combination of IO received these drugs in the context of a clinical trial. Fifty-five percent of patients with advanced disease did not have access to standard first-line therapy. The rate of loss to medical follow-up was 69% of cases. Conclusions: Despite the proven oncological benefit of the latest generation of therapies based on IO/IO or IO/TKI for mRCC, access to first-line standard management is still poor in our country, even with single agent TKI. Public health programs should be implemented to expand therapeutic options for this group of patients.

Neuroendocrine tumors: Ten years of experience in a Mexican oncology reference center

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Background: Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are infrequent neoplasms that originate in the neuroendocrine cells of the embryological endoderm. Few data exist about the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of these tumors in the Mexican population. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients with pathology-confirmed NET treated at an Oncology Reference Center in North-East Mexico from 2010 to 2019. Clinical characteristics were recorded and an evaluation of overall survival (OS) using the Kaplan-Meier method was performed. Results: Fifty-three patients were included in the final analysis. The mean age at diagnosis was 54 +/- 16.36 years and 53% were men. Primarily affected sites were the gastroenteropancreatic tract [GEP] (47%), lung and mediastinum (21%), unknown primary (21%), and others (11%). Regarding the clinical stage at presentation, 22.6% of patients with NETs had localized disease, while 22.6% had regional spread and 54.7% were considered to have metastatic disease at diagnosis. Median OS was 42 months for all patients with NETs. In the GEP group, the median OS was 64 months, whereas for the lung/ mediastinum group was 8 months and for the unknown primary group was 5 months. Median OS stratified by stage was as follows: Localized disease: Not reached (NR), locoregional (20 months), and metastatic disease (8 months). Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study published in English literature reporting the clinical characteristics and survival of Mexican patients with NETs. It is necessary to expand the information regarding these neoplasms to improve access of these patients to standard treatments and therefore improve their outcomes.

Clinical stage I synchronous bilateral testicular germ cell tumor with different histopathology: a case report

Bilateral testicular germ cell tumors (BTGCT) occur in 1 to 4% of patients with testicular cancer and of these, 10-15% are synchronous. Overall, BTGCT represents less than 0.5% of all new cases of testicular cancer. There are few reports in the literature of synchronous BTGCT with different histology. We present the case of a 30-year-old man who presented to our genitourinary tumor unit with a bilateral increase of testicular volume. After initial assessment, a testicular ultrasound showed the presence of solid tumors in both testes. Staging studies were negative for metastatic disease. The patient was referred to the fertility clinic for sperm banking and later underwent a bilateral radical orchiectomy. The histopathology evaluation revealed a 5.5 cm right-sided mixed germ cell tumor and a 1.5 cm left-sided testicular seminoma. Because patient's poor compliance for surveillance was identified as a risk factor for relapse and poor outcome, adjuvant chemotherapy was favored. The patient underwent one cycle of bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin (BEP). After four years of follow up, the patient shows no evidence of relapse, either clinically or radiologically. In men unlikely to carry out successful surveillance; active treatment is the preferred option for preventing disease recurrence, even in patients with no risk factors. The physician must consider all available therapeutic measures in this scenario to achieve the best possible therapeutic result.

Impact of a multidisciplinary tumor board in the treatment of genitourinary tumors: Real-world data from a referral center in Mexico

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Background: International guidelines for genitourinary cancers recommend treatment decisions by a multidisciplinary tumor board (MTB). The benefits of a MTB include greater accuracy in staging and in the probability of receiving care in compliance with international clinical practice guidelines, greater access to clinical trials, better communication between treating physicians and cost-effective care with greater patient satisfaction, which could translate into better outcomes. Our objective was to assess the impact of a MTB in the management of patients with genitourinary tumors in a tertiary referral university center of México. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all cases presented to the Genitourinary Tumor Committee of our hospital from March to August 2019. Results: A total of 84 patients were included in the analysis; of these 80% were men with a median age of 61 years. Of all the cases, 68% were first-time presentations with a median time from evaluation to presentation of 4 days. The most frequently discussed diagnoses were prostate, urothelial and renal cancer, each corresponding to about 28% of the sample. Forty-six percent of the cases presented were in metastatic disease. The median time for discussion of each case after its presentation was 10 minutes. Changes were made in the clinical stage and treatment plan proposed by the most responsible physician in 4% and 46% of the cases, respectively, achieving a unanimous consensus in 88%. After the MTB session, 29 patients were lost to medical follow-up and were not subsequently evaluated. Among the 55 patients who underwent reassessment, the recommendations of the MTB were applied in 92%. Conclusions: Discussion of urologic oncology cases at the MTB led to a change in the treatment plan in almost half of the patients. Although MTBs are an increasingly common practice in Mexico, this is the first study that describes the impact that these sessions have on the management of genitourinary tumors in our population. The high rate of loss to medical follow-up remains an important problem in developing countries, negatively affecting the prognosis of these patients.

Clinical characteristics and treatment adherence among men with testicular germ cell tumors: Real-world data from a referral center in Mexico

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Background: Notwithstanding excellent oncological outcomes reported by pivotal trials in patients with testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT), adherence to medical treatment and follow-up remains a major issue in developing countries. Studies that describe the clinical characteristics and treatment adherence of Mexican men with TGCT are lacking. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all men with newly diagnosed TGCT treated at an oncology referral center in Northeast Mexico from 2014 to 2018. Results: In the analysis, 195 patients were included. Median age at diagnosis was 28 years; median time from diagnosis to first evaluation by an oncologist was 26 days. Distribution according to the laterality of the primary tumor was right, 56%; left, 43%; and bilateral, 1%. There were 14 oncological emergencies at presentation; the most frequent was choriocarcinoma syndrome, described in 5 patients. Thirty-five percent of cases were seminomatous germ cell tumors (SGCT) and 65% nonseminomatous germ cell tumors (NSGCT). The clinical stages at diagnosis were I, 36%; IS, 8%; II, 18%; and III, 38%. After risk stratification according to the International Germ Cell Cancer Collaborative Group (IGCCCG), 90% of SGCT had a good risk and 10% an intermediate risk. In NSGCT, the risk distribution was 65, 10, and 25% for good, intermediate, and poor-risk disease, respectively. After proposing treatment, the adherence rate was 81%. Of the total, 58% were lost to medical follow-up with a median time of adherence of 11.5 months. Conclusions: Despite coverage by the Mexican public health insurance system “Seguro Popular”, treatment adherence and medical follow-up abandonment is a problem among men with TGCT, which could negatively impact their prognosis. Measures must be implemented to optimize adherence in this group of patients.

Clinical impact of the Mexican healthcare system "Seguro Popular" on breast cancer survival

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Background: Breast cancer (BC) is one of the leading issues in public health in low and middle-income countries. In Mexico, access to healthcare is fragmented according to the patient´s employment and not by its needs; IMSS and ISSTE (Social Security) provide access to prepaid medicine to those under the formal sector of the economy, leaving up to 50 million Mexicans without access to a prepaid scheme. In 2003, the Seguro Popular (SP) was created in order to bring universal access to prepaid medicine in Mexico, and in 2007 expanded its coverage for BC. Methods: Retrospective and comparative study. The primary endpoint was to determine the impact on survival of SP on BC. Records were obtained from the electronic database of the Hospital Universitario “Dr. José Eleuterio González”. We included patients with invasive BC stage I-IV. Patients with any other kind of healthcare schemes other than SP, patients who underwent treatment outside our institution, and those with a follow up no greater than 3 months were excluded. 104 patients from the period prior the implementation of the SP (2000-2007) met the criteria for evaluation; thereafter we randomly selected a second cohort with the same size from the period after the implementation of the SP (2008-2013). Results: Median age at diagnosis was 48 and 51 years, respectively, for the periods before and after the implementation of SP. Distribution by clinical stage (Non-SP vs SP): CS I, 4.8 vs 10%, CS II, 31 vs 44%, CS III, 52 vs 38%, and CS IV, 10 vs 6.7%. Molecular subtypes distribution (Non-SP vs SP): Luminal, 61 vs 62%, HER2 Positive (IHC+++/FISH+) 17 vs 22%, TNBC, 21 vs 18%, unknown 6.7 vs 5.7%. Regarding survival, we observed a statistically significant difference on progression-free survival and overall survival favoring the SP cohort; PFS at 5 years, 54 vs 81% (p = < 0.0001) and OS at 5-year, 72 vs 86% (p = 0.01). Conclusions: We present evidence that the Mexican healthcare scheme SP, created to bring medical access to those patients without prepaid health protection, provides a significant clinical benefit on survival (PFS and OS) in women with breast cancer.