Status of breast cancer in Latin American: Results of the breast cancer revealed initiative.

The Breast Cancer Revealed initiative was designed and conducted to know the status of breast cancer at each point of breast cancer care, through i) prevention, ii) detection, iii) diagnosis, iv) treatment, and iv) the capacity of our health systems. The expert panel from 11 Latin American countries identified several strategies and proposed high impact priorities, including implementation of prevention policies, improve primary healthcare capacity for breast cancer screening, have adequate infrastructure to make effective and timely diagnoses, have a multidisciplinary team in the treatment process, access to a variety of treatments for all types of patients, have a coordinated and articulated system from primary care to specialized hospital. In a region with limited resources, prioritization in high-impact strategies for breast cancer control could lead to improved clinical outcomes and quality of life for our patients.

NUSAP1 and PCLAF (KIA0101) Downregulation by Neoadjuvant Therapy is Associated with Better Therapeutic Outcomes and Survival in Breast Cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate whether changes in genomic expression that occur beginning with breast cancer (BC) diagnosis and through to tumor resection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) reveal biomarkers that can help predict therapeutic response and survival. Materials and Methods: We determined gene expression profiles based on microarrays in tumor samples from 39 BC patients who showed pathologic complete response (pCR) or therapeutic failure (non-pCR) after NCT (cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin/epirubicin). Based on unsupervised clustering of gene expression, together with functional enrichment analyses of differentially expressed genes, we selected NUSAP1, PCLAF, MME, and DST. We evaluated the NCT response and the expression of these four genes in BC histologic subtypes. In addition, we study the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Finally, we analyze the correlation between NUSAP1 and PCLAF against disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: A signature of 43 differentially expressed genes discriminated pCR from non-pCR patients (|fold change >2|, false discovery rate <0.05) only in biopsies taken after surgery. Patients achieving pCR showed downregulation of NUSAP1 and PCLAF in tumor tissues and increased DFS and OS, while overexpression of these genes correlated with poor therapeutic response and OS. These genes are involved in the regulation of mitotic division. Conclusions: The downregulation of NUSAP1 and PCLAF after NCT is associated with the tumor response to chemotherapy and patient survival.

Universal screening for SARS-CoV-2 in obstetric patients.

Not available.

Factores de riesgo modificables del cáncer de mama: una comparación entre mujeres menores y mayores de 40 años / Modifiable risk factors for breast cancer: a comparison between women younger and older than 40 years-old

Resumen OBJETIVO: Analizar la repercusión diferencial de los principales factores de riesgo modificables asociados con el cáncer de mama en pacientes menores y mayores de 40 años. MATERIALES Y MÉTODOS: Estudio de cohorte, retrospectivo, observacional y descriptivo. Se reunió la información de las pacientes con diagnóstico o tratamiento de cáncer de mama atendidas en un centro hospitalario del Noreste de México entre enero de 2016 y diciembre de 2017. La asociación entre las distintas variables y los grupos etarios se determinó con la prueba de la χ2 de Pearson y se consideraron estadísticamente significativos los valores con p < 0.05. RESULTADOS: Se revisaron 524 expedientes clínicos de pacientes con cáncer de mama, con límites de edad entre 22 y 99 y se seleccionaron las menores de 40 años (n = 75) que representaron 14.31% del total de las pacientes atendidas, porcentaje que coincide con la prevalencia de cáncer de mama en mujeres jóvenes reportada en la bibliografía mexicana. Se encontró un efecto similar en el riesgo de padecer cáncer de mama entre ambos grupos con los siguientes factores de riesgo modificables: nuliparidad, tabaquismo, consumo de alcohol, sedentarismo y anticoncepción hormonal. La obesidad (IMC superior a 30) tuvo mayor repercusión en mujeres de más de 40 años. CONCLUSIÓN: La prevalencia de cáncer de mama en las pacientes jóvenes fue del doble de lo reportado en el ámbito internacional. Es necesario el control de peso en mujeres menores de 40 años, que permita reducir la incidencia del cáncer de mama triple negativo en esta población. Asimismo, se recomienda el control de los otros factores de riesgo modificables porque, aunque no parecen afectar significativamente a las mujeres jóvenes, su control tiene una repercusión positiva en la prevención del cáncer de mama en todos los grupos etarios.

Abstract OBJECTIVE: To analyze the differential impact of the main modifiable risk factors associated with breast cancer among patients younger than 40 years of age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cohort, retrospective, observational and descriptive study. The information of the patients with diagnosis or treatment of breast cancer treated in a hospital in Northeast Mexico between January 2016 and December 2017 was collected. The association between the different variables and the age groups was determined with the test of Pearson's χ2 and the values p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: 524 clinical records of patients with breast cancer were reviewed, with age limits between 22 and 99 years. From this group, patients under 40 years of age (n = 75) were selected, representing 14.31% of the total number of patients treated, a percentage that coincides with the prevalence of breast cancer in young women reported in the Mexican literature. A similar impact was found on the risk of breast cancer between both groups with the following modifiable risk factors: nulliparity, smoking, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle and hormonal contraception. Obesity (BMI ≥ 30) had a greater impact on women ≥ 40 years. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of breast cancer in young patients was double what was reported internationally. Weight control is necessary in women under 40 years of age, which allows reducing the incidence of triple negative breast cancer in this population. Likewise, the control of the other modifiable risk factors is recommended because, although they do not seem to significantly affect young women, their control has a positive impact on the prevention of breast cancer in all age groups.

Comparison of Automated and Manual DNA Isolation Methods of Liquid-Based Cytology Samples.

Liquid-based cytology (LBC) has been used as a diagnostic tool for cervical cancer for years and is now being adopted for other gynecological cancers. LBC represents an important challenge to ensure that the process yields representative biospecimens for quality control (QC) of diagnostic procedures. In this study, we compare QC parameters (integrity, yield and purity, and polymerase chain reaction [PCR] amplification) of DNA isolated from LBC (N = 296) using two different nucleic acid isolation methods, manual (n = 233) or automated (n = 63). We also evaluated two different types of cytological brushes for sampling from the cervix. Our results suggest that manual isolation (yield 22.81 ± 1.92 µg) resulted in increased DNA recovery when compared with automated isolation (yield 9.96 ± 1.11 µg) from LBC samples, with a p-value of <0.0003. We estimated that 98% (53/54) of the samples preserved the integrity of DNA and were suitable for standard molecular biology analyses. The ß-globin gene was amplified in 100% (296/296) of the DNA samples by endpoint PCR. We found no significant difference between the performance of the cytological brushes (p value of <0.6711) in a general overview. However, when looking at the results from using each brush individually, the manual isolation method was statistically superior to the automated method. Our work illustrates the impact of good QC of preanalytic conditions, which will be important for the application of LBC for developing early detection methods for gynecological cancers.