The cost of colorectal cancer according to the TNM stage. / Valoración del coste económico del cáncer colorrectal según estadio tumoral.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to measure the cost of treatment of colorectal cancer in the Basque public health system according to the clinical stage. METHODS: We retrospectively collected demographic data, clinical data and resource use of a sample of 529 patients. For stagesi toiii the initial and follow-up costs were measured. The calculation of cost for stageiv combined generalized linear models to relate the cost to the duration of follow-up based on parametric survival analysis. Unit costs were obtained from the analytical accounting system of the Basque Health Service. RESULTS: The sample included 110 patients with stagei, 171 with stageii, 158 with stageiii and 90 with stageiv colorectal cancer. The initial total cost per patient was 8,644€ for stagei, 12,675€ for stageii and 13,034€ for stageiii. The main component was hospitalization cost. Calculated by extrapolation for stageiv mean survival was 1.27years. Its average annual cost was 22,403€, and 24,509€ to death. The total annual cost for colorectal cancer extrapolated to the whole Spanish health system was 623.9million€. CONCLUSIONS: The economic burden of colorectal cancer is important and should be taken into account in decision-making. The combination of generalized linear models and survival analysis allows estimation of the cost of metastatic stage.

Anorectal melanoma. An update.

Anorectal melanoma is an uncommon and aggressive disease. Because the patients often present with non specific complaints, a high clinical suspicion is important to avoid a delayed diagnosis. Patients undergoing radical surgery have no significant survival difference compared to those undergoing wide local excision. Abdominoperineal resection should be reserved for selected patients in whom local excision is not technically possible or cannot obtain a clear margin. The indiscriminate use of groin dissection is not advisable in anorectal melanoma and should be use in selected cases. Systemic chemotherapy is generally a non effective treatment and continues be studied. Radiation therapy can be used as hypofractionated radiation therapy combined with local excision or in a palliative setting. The oncological outcomes in anorectal melanoma are very poor. The aim of the present study is to review clinicopathology features and management of anorectal melanoma.

A study on MSH2 and MLH1 mutations in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer families from the Basque Country, describing four new germline mutations.

Hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) or Lynch syndrome underlies between 2 and 5% of all colorectal cancer. It is inherited as an autosomal dominant condition due to mutations in the mismatch repair genes. Fifty-four non-related index cases, 21 of them fulfilling Amsterdam criteria I or II, were studied. Ten (10/21 = 47.6%) different pathological mutations were found in this group, two of which had not previously been reported--one in MLH1 and the other in MSH2-. In the remaining patients, we also found another family with one of these new mutations, and four additional changes, two of which were also new--a pathological change in MSH2 and a second change of uncertain significance in MLH1-, while the other two changes had already been reported. Of all mutations, eight were found in MSH2 (8/15 = 53.3%) and seven in MLH1 (7/15 = 46.6%), suggesting a slightly greater involvement of MSH2 in HNPCC than MLH1 in our population, in contrast to the results reported by other authors.