Chemotherapy-related adverse effects with anthracycline and taxane-containing regimens in patients with localized Breast cancer: a descriptive study : Mohammed VI University Hospital, Medical Oncology Department, Marrakech, Morocco.

BACKGROUND: Although the side effects of chemotherapy are frequently described in research studies, there is little evidence on how common they are in everyday clinical care. This study's goal was to assess the most prevalent short-term side effects experienced by patients with localized breast cancer, undergoing chemotherapy based on anthracyclines and taxane-containing treatments, at the medical oncology department of the Mohammed VI University Hospital of Marrakech, Morocco. METHODS: This was a descriptive study. We conducted a listening session at the outpatient department of the hospital with the help of a structured questionnaire. The session engaged 122 women who had undergone cycles of chemotherapy. A chi-square test was used to compare the incidence and relative risk of short side effects with both anthracycline and taxane-containing regimens. RESULTS: The average age of participants was 49.1 years. In both regimens, the findings highlighted the frequency and relative risk of the following adverse effects: systemic symptoms (fever, asthenia and sleep disorder), gastrointestinal toxicity (Vomiting, nausea, diarrhoea, constipation, mucositis and loss of appetite), dermatological toxicity (Skin reactions on hands/feet, nail toxicity, allergies, alopecia and peripheral edema), neurological toxicity (neuropathy), arthromyalgia and ocular toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, it is crucial for healthcare professionals to be conscious of the significance of these adverse effects. They must also know how to manage them. Likewise, the listening approach highlights its importance in the daily follow-up and monitoring of patients.

Development of a well-defined tool to predict the overall survival in lung cancer patients: an African based cohort.

BACKGROUND: Nomogram is a graphic representation containing the expressed factor of the mathematical formula used to define a particular phenomenon. We aim to build and internally validate a nomogram to predict overall survival (OS) in patients diagnosed with lung cancer (LC). METHODS: We included 1200 LC patients from a single institution registry diagnosed from 2013 to 2021. The independent prognostic factors of LC patients were identified via cox proportional hazard regression analysis. Based on the results of multivariate cox analysis, we constructed the nomogram to predict the OS of LC patients. RESULTS: We finally included a total of 1104 LC patients. Age, medical urgency at diagnosis, performance status, radiotherapy, and surgery were identified as prognostic factors, and integrated to build the nomogram. The model performance in predicting prognosis was measured by receiver operating characteristic curve. Calibration plots of 6-, 12-, and 24- months OS showed optimal agreement between observations and model predictions. CONCLUSION: We have developed and validated a unique predictive tool that can offer patients with LC an individual OS prognosis. This useful prognostic model could aid doctors in making decisions and planning therapeutic trials.

Lung cancer in middle and southern Morocco.

Purpose: Determining risk factors associated with a fatal disease such as lung cancer (LC) remains an important key to understanding the factors related to its development and therefore using the correct emergent or accessible treatments. For that, we sought to highlight by describing, and analysing, the risk factors related to LC survival, reflecting the actual situation in Morocco. Patients and methods: We included 987 LC patients diagnosed from 2015 to 2021 at the Medical Oncology Department at the Mohammed VI University Hospital of Marrakech. An overview of the LC situation was described, and analysed, to determine the risk factors related to survival. The independent prognostic factors were determined using Cox Proportional Hazards Regression Analysis. To create a distinction between different risks group in the survival curve, stratification was done, respectively, within sex, age, histology type, treatments and radiation therapy. Results: We finally included 862 patients with 15 parameters among the 27 extracted, all meeting the inclusion criteria. 89.1% of the patients were male (n = 768) and 10.9% were female (n = 94), of whom 83.5% had a history of tobacco smoking (n = 720). The median survival of both sexes was 716 (5-2,167) days. The average age at diagnosis was 60 years. Five hundred and thirty-four patients presented with advanced stage. Patients above 66 years were the more diagnosed category with adenocarcinoma at T4N2M1c pathological category, and endocrinal comorbidity, in addition to pleurisy syndrome. Moreover, family history was found to be a bad prognostic factor. Interestingly, smoking status was not a bad contributor to survival. Age at diagnosis, histology subtype, performance status, haemoglobin, numbers of cures of the first-line chemotherapy, radiotherapy, anaemia and treatments were identified as risk factors related to survival. Conclusion: We established a descriptive and analytical overview of the current LC epidemiology situation in the oncology division of Mohammed VI University Hospital in a non-industrialised state taking into account smoking status.

Localised breast cancer: neoadjuvant chemotherapy impact evaluation on the pathological complete response (PCR) in a lower middle-income country.

Introduction: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery remains the current recommended therapeutic strategy for the management of locally advanced breast cancer. The standard chemotherapy protocol is sequential with anthracycline followed by taxanes. However public hospitals in Morocco are confronted with a shortage in healthcare products. We, therefore, evaluated the efficacy of the different protocols proposed to patients, by evaluating the clinical response after chemotherapy especially through the pathological complete response (PCR) after surgery. Methods: We focused on the database of the medical oncology department of the only public hospital covering middle and southern Morocco. We included patients diagnosed between 2018 and 2020. Two groups of patients distinguished in group A (GA) received the standard therapy, and group B (GB) received a non-standard protocol. The therapeutic response was assessed clinically before surgery and then by pathological examination of the surgical specimens. The Sataloff classification defined the histological response for both tumour and lymph nodes. We included both groups in one variable to determine their impact on outcomes. A logistic regression-based analysis was adopted to define variables related to the PCR. Results: Over the study period, 120 patients met our inclusion criteria. They were distinguished at 72% in GA and 28% in GB. 60.8% over 120 got a partial response, whereas, only 33.3% achieved a complete response. The general PCR rate was 28% with 14.3% in GB and 85.7% in GA. The tumour PCR was obtained in 40 (33.3%) over 120 patients and 51.7% of lymph node PCR. The multivariate logistic regression analysis results show no relative factors associated with general PCR achievement. Conclusion: These first interesting results from an institutional database inform us about our clinical practice and require additional research using prospective randomised controlled studies.