Molecular Epidemiology of ALK Rearrangements in Advanced Lung Adenocarcinoma in Latin America.

OBJECTIVE: Latin American countries are heterogeneous in terms of lung cancer incidence and exposure to potential carcinogens. We evaluated the frequency and clinical characteristics of ALK rearrangements (ALKr) in Latin America. METHODS: A total of 5,130 lung cancer patients from 10 Latin American countries were screened for inclusion. ALKr detection was performed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to assess method variability. Demographic and clinicopathologic characteristics were analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 5,130 patients screened, 8.4% (n = 433) had nonevaluable FISH tests. Evaluable FISH analyses revealed positive ALKr in 6.8% (320/4,697) of the study population, which included patients from 9 countries. ALKr distribution for each country was: Mexico 7.6% (79/1,034), Colombia 4.1% (10/242), Argentina 6.0% (153/2,534), Costa Rica 9.5% (13/137), Panama 4.4% (5/114), Uruguay 5.4% (2/37), Chile 8.6% (16/185), Venezuela 8.9% (13/146), and Peru 10.8% (29/268). RT-PCR showed high positive (83.6%) and negative (99.7%) predictive values when compared to the gold standard FISH. In contrast, IHC only showed a high negative predictive value (94.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Although there is a clear country and continental variability in terms of ALKr frequency, this difference is not significant and the overall incidence of ALKr in Latin America does not differ from the rest of the world.

Epirubicin, cisplatin plus ifosfamide versus standard chemotherapeutic regimens for advanced/unresectable primary thoracic sarcomas.

PURPOSE: Thoracic sarcomas are rare malignancies, with limited data for unresectable/advanced scenarios. Our goal is to provide insights of a three-drug chemotherapy regimen improving patient survival compared to standard regimens. METHODS: Retrospective cohort analysis of patients diagnosed with unresectable/advanced primary thoracic sarcoma divided between primary pulmonary sarcomas (PPS) and chest wall sarcomas (CWS) comparing chemotherapeutical regimens efficacy. Not true soft tissue sarcomas (STS) for PPS were excluded from the analysis. Univariate and multivariate analysis performed via Cox-regression model. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) analysis via Kaplan-Meier with hazard ratio (HR) obtained via Mantel-Haenszel or log rank. RESULTS: 157 total cases were included, from which 50 cases were PPS and 107 cases CWS. For PPS, 4 cases were excluded from the analysis as they were not true STS. The most common histology was undifferentiated sarcomas, 63% of cases were treated with E/C/I and 37% with another regimen. The E/C/I regimen demonstrated a benefit for both OS (p = 0.020) and PFS (p = 0.010) when compared to any other regimen as well as when compared to non-platinum regimens (p = 0.016 and p = 0.001). Regarding CWS, the most common histology was synovial and undifferentiated sarcomas, 55.1% were treated with E/C/I and 44.9% treated with another regimen. The E/C/I regimen did not demonstrate a benefit for OS or PFS compared to any other regimen, neither when compared to other non-platinum regimens. However, a benefit was observed in favor of E/C/I when compared to other platinum regimens in both OS (p = 0.049) and PFS (0.015). Both analyses for PPS and CWS demonstrated a benefit in favor of cisplatin therapies compared to carboplatin in both OS and PFS. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that platinum therapy alone does not work, and that cisplatin must be the agent of choice and it's used in combination could increase treatment response. The E/C/I regimen demonstrated a in PPS but not for CWS, this is due do their rarity of PPS and that no standard treatment is established yet. The regimen proposed here could represent a possible new standard of treatment for PPS as long as it is validated in a prospective study.

Hepatoblastoma. Clinical experience at a single institution using the Siopel staging system.

BACKGROUND: Staging in Hepatoblastoma has recently become controversial. In developing countries diagnosis occurs mostly in advanced stages under these circumstances, we propose another option that can be considered of prognostic value. METHOD: A retrospective analysis of cases diagnosed with Hepatoblastoma (HB), treated in a single Institution, in nine years was conducted. Chemotherapeutic regimens were analyzed, as well as the number of courses administered and response to treatment. RESULTS: Thirty-two patients were studied. Patients had symptoms from 1 to 25 weeks before diagnosis. SIOP stratification was used, finding 12 cases in PRETEXT II, 6 cases in PRETEXT III, and 14 cases in PRETEXT IV. No single case was identified in PRETEXT I. CONCLUSIONS: When comparing survival using the PRETEXT system, SIOP and our study showed marked differences. These results may not be comparable due to differences in tumor volume among the same PRETEXT stratification. We believe that tumor volume is related to prognosis.

[Frequency of cesarean sections in four hospitals of Mexico City: 20 years later]. / Frecuencia de cesáreas en cuatro hospitales del Distrito Federal: 20 años después.

BACKGROUND: This article is an update of a similar study published in 1984 in which the frequency of cesarean sections practiced in four Mexico City hospitals from 1976 to 1983 was analyzed. OBJECTIVE: To assess the frequency of cesarean sections practiced in four Mexico City hospitals from 1995 to 2002. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Data from these same hospitals corresponding to the 1995-2002 period was again collected. RESULTS: The frequency of cesarean sections in those four health care centers exceeded by far the internationally accepted standards; this frequency shows an increase, and it now accounts for twice as many operations as the number of interventions originally recorded. In 1976, 10 out of every 68 pregnancies came to end vaginally. By 2002, the same ratio was 10 out of 27. CONCLUSIONS: It is urgent to reduce the frequency of such a practice, as well as to reorganize the obstetric services; furthermore, the corresponding modifications in the training of such medical specialists must be done.