Surrogate Endpoints in Oncology: Overview of Systematic Reviews and Their Use for Health Decision Making in Mexico.

OBJECTIVES: The use of surrogate endpoints (SEs) for cancer drug approval in health systems is common. The objectives of this study were to identify systematic reviews (SRs) that evaluated the correlation of SEs with overall survival (OS) in cancer drugs to analyze the applications of approved cancer drugs with SEs in Mexico and to apply the validation framework proposed by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). METHODS: An overview of SRs was conducted according to Cochrane Collaboration methodology. Applications for approved cancer drugs with SEs in Mexico were analyzed. The IQWiG validation framework was applied to evaluate the SEs identified in the overview and in the applications in Mexico. RESULTS: A total of 85 SRs that assessed 192 SEs for different types of cancer were selected. According to the IQWiG model, only 2.5% of the SEs analyzed in the overview and only one of the applications in Mexico could be used as surrogates for OS because the reliability (methodological quality) of the SRs and the strength of the correlation of SEs with OS was mostly low (92%) and low (correlation coefficient r ≤ 0.7; 50.5%), respectively. Of the total number of cancer drugs approved in Mexico, 19.4% used SEs. CONCLUSIONS: Most SEs for different types of cancer could not be used as surrogates for OS according to the IQWiG model, and their use for the approval of cancer drugs in Mexico is generally not justified.

Aceptación de la vacunación contra la COVID-19 durante la primera ola pandémica en Perú / Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination during the first pandemic wave in Peru

Señor editor: El exceso de muertes debido a la COVID-19 en Perú durante el 2020fueunodelosmáselevadosdelmundo,esto probablemente favorecido por la fragilidad del sistema salud y los determinantes sociales de este país. Si bien una de las principales estrategias para mitigar el impacto de esta enfermedad es la vacunación masiva, la falta de aceptación de la vacuna por parte de la población peruana podría ser uno de los mayores desafíos para lograr dicho objetivo.

Mr. Editor: The excess of deaths due to COVID-19 in Peru during 2020 was one of the highest in the world, probably favored by the fragility of the health system and the social determinants of this country. Although one of the main strategies to mitigate the impact of this disease is mass vaccination, the lack of acceptance of the vaccine by the Peruvian population could be one of the biggest challenges to achieve this goal.