The cost of human papillomavirus vaccination delivery at the administrative and health facility levels in the Philippines.

Background: The World Health Organization has recommended the inclusion of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in national immunization programs to address the global problem of cervical cancer. In the Philippines, HPV vaccination was introduced in a phased approach in 2015. This study seeks to estimate the cost of delivery of the HPV vaccination program and its operational context in the Philippines. Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional micro-costing study focused on ongoing HPV vaccination delivery and its operational context across all levels of the health system. Using structured questionnaires and data collection from secondary sources, the weighted mean financial and economic costs and costs per dose at the national, subnational, and health facility levels were estimated. Results: The weighted mean financial and economic costs per dose of the HPV vaccination program aggregated across all levels of the health system were $US3.72and $29.74, respectively. Activities contributing most significantly to costs were service delivery and vaccine collection or distribution and storage at the health facility and administrative levels, respectively. The opportunity costs for health worker and non-health worker time accounted for 77% of the economic cost per dose. Conclusion: The total weighted mean financial and economic costs of HPV delivery are within range of those reported in other countries. Costing studies can help identify cost drivers with local operational context to help inform policymakers and program managers in budgeting and planning interventions to improve program implementation.

Clinical Outcomes of COVID-19 Infection in Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women: Results from The Philippine CORONA Study.

OBJECTIVE: Our study determined the association of pregnancy with various clinical outcomes among women with COVID-19 infection. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective, cohort, subgroup analysis of the Philippine CORONA Study datasets comparing the clinical/neurological manifestations and outcomes of pregnant and nonpregnant women admitted in 37 Philippine hospitals for COVID-19 infection. RESULTS: We included 2448 women in the analyses (322 pregnant and 2.126 nonpregnant). Logistic regression models showed that crude odds ratio (OR) for mortality (OR 0.26 [95% CI 0.11, 0.66]), respiratory failure [OR 0.37 [95% CI 0.17, 0.80]), need for intensive care (OR 0.39 [95% CI 0.19, 0.80]), and prolonged length of hospital stay (OR 1.73 [95% CI 1.36, 2.19]) among pregnant women were significant. After adjusting for age, disease severity, and new-onset neurological symptoms, only the length of hospital stay remained significant (adjusted OR 1.99 [95% CI 1.56,2.54]). Cox regression models revealed that the unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) for mortality (HR 0.22 [95% CI 0.09, 0.55]) among pregnant women was statistically significant; however, after adjustment, the HR for mortality became nonsignificant. CONCLUSION: We did not find a significantly increased risk of mortality, respiratory failure, and need for ICU admission in pregnant women compared with nonpregnant women with COVID-19. However, the likelihood of hospital confinement beyond 14 days was twice more likely among pregnant women than nonpregnant women with COVID-19.

Diagnostic Performances of Ultrasound-Based Models for Predicting Malignancy in Patients with Adnexal Masses.

This study compared the diagnostic performance of different ultrasound-based models in discriminating between benign and malignant ovarian masses in a Filipino population. This was a prospective cohort study in women with findings of an ovarian mass on ultrasound. All included patients underwent a physical examination before level III specialist ultrasonographic and Doppler evaluation using the different International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) Group's risk models. Serum CA-125 and a second-generation multivariate index assay (MIA2G) were also determined for all patients. The ovarian imaging and biomarker results were correlated with the histological findings. A total of 260 patients with completed ultrasound, CA-125, MIA2G, and histopathologic results was included in the study. The presence of papillae with blood flow and irregular cyst walls during the ultrasound were significantly associated with a 20-fold (OR: 20.13, CI: 8.69−46.67, p < 0.01) and 10-fold (OR: 10.11, CI: 5.30−19.28, p < 0.01) increase in the likelihood of a malignant lesion, respectively. All individual sonologic procedures performed well in discerning malignant and benign ovarian lesions. IOTA-LR1 showed the highest accuracy (82.6%, 95% CI: 77.5−87%) for identifying ovarian cancer. IOTA-ADNEX showed the highest sensitivity (93.3%, 95% CI: 87.2−97.1%) while IOTA-LR2 exhibited the highest specificity (84.4%, 95% CI: 77.3−90%). Among the different serial test combinations, IOTA-LR1 with MIA2G and IOTA-LR2 with MIA2G showed the highest diagnostic accuracy (AUROC = 0.82). This study showed that all individual ultrasound-based models performed well in discerning malignant and benign ovarian lesions, with IOTA-LR1 exhibiting the highest accuracy.

Improving diagnostic strategies for ovarian cancer in Filipino women using ultrasound imaging and a multivariate index assay.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical performance and overall utility of imaging and biomarker assays in discriminating between benign and malignant ovarian masses in a Filipino population. METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study among Filipino women undergoing assessment for an ovarian mass in a tertiary center. All included patients underwent a physical examination before level III specialist ultrasonographic and Doppler evaluation, multivariate index assay (MIA2G), and surgery for an adnexal mass. Ovarian tumors were classified as high-risk for malignancy based on the International Ovarian Tumour Analysis (IOTA) - Logistic Regression 2 (LR2) score. The ovarian imaging and biomarker results were correlated with the reference standard: histological findings. RESULTS: Among the 379 women with adnexal masses enrolled in this study, 291 were evaluable with ultrasound imaging, biomarker assays, and histopathological results. The risk of malignancy was higher for women classified as high-risk based on IOTA-LR2 (≥10%). The sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy for the prediction of malignancy were 81.2%, 81%, and 0.81 (95% CI: 0.77-0.86) for IOTA-LR2; 77.5%, 66.7%, and 0.72 (95% CI: 0.67-0.77) for CA-125; and 91.3%, 41.2%, and 0.66 (95% CI: 0.62-0.71) for MIA2G. A combination of IOTA-LR2 and MIA2G significantly influenced the diagnostic performance and the result. When MIA2G was combined with IOTA-LR2 in parallel, the sensitivity (94.2%) and NPV (87.7%) increased, but the specificity (37.3%) decreased. When combined with IOTA-LR2 in series, there were fewer false positives, which resulted in improved specificity (85%). CONCLUSION: This study determined the utility of ovarian imaging and a second-generation multivariate index assay in predicting the risk of ovarian malignancy. IOTA-LR2 and MIA2G were useful in classifying patients with a high risk for ovarian malignancy.

Clinical Performance of a Multivariate Index Assay in Detecting Early-Stage Ovarian Cancer in Filipino Women.

This study evaluated the clinical performance and overall utility of a multivariate index assay in detecting early-stage ovarian cancer in a Filipino population. This is a prospective cohort study among Filipino women undergoing assessment for an ovarian mass in a tertiary center. Patients diagnosed with early-stage ovarian cancer and who underwent a physical examination before level III specialist ultrasonographic and Doppler evaluation, multivariate index assay (MIA2G), and surgery for an adnexal mass were included in this study. Ovarian tumors were classified as high-risk for malignancy based on the IOTA-LR2 score. The ovarian imaging and biomarker results were correlated with the reference standard: surgico-pathologic findings. The MIA2G exhibited the best overall performance among individual classifiers with a sensitivity of 91.7% and NPV of 84.7%, with a concomitant higher sensitivity in early-stage disease, whether as an individual classifier (93.5%) or in serial combination with ultrasound (85.5%). The performance of biomarkers (specificity, positive predictive values, and AUROC) such as MIA2G and CA-125 significantly improved when combined with an ultrasound risk scoring approach (p < 0.01). MIA2G showed a higher sensitivity for detecting lesions among EOC and late-stage ovarian cancers than otherwise. The application of biomarkers for evaluating ovarian masses in our local setting is secondary to ultrasound but adopting multivariate index assays rather than CA-125 would increase the detection of early-stage ovarian cancers regardless of menopausal status. This is most relevant in areas where level III sonographers or gynecologic oncologists are limited and preoperative referrals to these specialists can improve the survival of our patients.