A nationwide pilot study on breast cancer screening in Peru.

Introduction: A high prevalence of advanced breast cancer (BC) is a common scenario in Latin America. In Peru, the frequency of BC at Stages III/IV is ≈50% despite implementation of a programme for breast cancer screening (BCS) along the country. We carried out a study to assess the feasibility and develop an instrument to evaluate the knowledge, barriers and perception about BCS in a nationwide pilot study in Peru among candidates for BCS.

Current Scenario of Clinical Cancer Research in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), progress has been made in some national and regional cancer control initiatives, which have proved useful in reducing diagnostic and treatment initiation delays. However, there are still significant gaps, including a lack of oncology clinical trials. In this article, we will introduce the current status of the region's clinical research in cancer, with a special focus on academic cancer research groups and investigator-initiated research (IIR) initiatives.

The Armed Conflict and the Impact on Patients With Cancer in Ukraine: Urgent Considerations.

On February 24, 2022, a war began within the Ukrainian borders. At least 3.0 million Ukrainian inhabitants have already fled the country.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Oncology Clinical Research in Latin America (LACOG 0420).

Purpose: COVID-19 has affected cancer care worldwide. Clinical trials are an important alternative for the treatment of oncologic patients, especially in Latin America, where trials can be the only opportunity for some of them to access novel and, sometimes, standard treatments.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, in which a 22-question survey regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on oncology clinical trials was sent to 350 representatives of research programs in selected Latin American institutions, members of the Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group.

The hispanic landscape of triple negative breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous and complex disease characterized by the absence of immunohistochemical expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER2. These breast tumors present an aggressive biology and offer few opportunities to be treated with targeted therapy resulting in bad disease outcomes. The epidemiology of TNBC is intriguing where the understanding of its biology has progressed quickly.

Gender and outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer: an old prognostic variable comes back for targeted therapy and immunotherapy?

Background: There are well-known differences in gender outcome in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other cancers. In this work, we evaluated several randomised clinical trials to explore the gender influence in the outcome of patients with NSCLC treated with targeted therapy and immunotherapy.

Methods: We performed a series of meta-analysis to compare the gender outcome in the routine setting for overall survival and progression-free survival (PFS) in phase III randomised clinical trials comparing EGFR inhibitors versus chemotherapy (OPTIMAL, LUX-lung 3, LUX-lung 6, EURTAC, ENSURE and WTJOG); ALK inhibitors versus chemotherapy (ASCEND 4, ASCEND 5, PROFILE 1014 and NCT009323893) and anti-PD1 checkpoint inhibitors versus chemotherapy (CheckMate 017, CheckMate 026, CheckMate 057, KEYNOTE 010 and KEYNOTE 024).

Effect of CCL5 expression in the recruitment of immune cells in triple negative breast cancer.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive form of breast cancer with limited options of targeted therapy. Recent findings suggest that the clinical course of TNBC may be modified by the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and chemokine's expression, such as CCL5. Diverse studies have shown that CCL5 suppresses anti-tumor immunity and it has been related to poor outcome in different types of cancer while in other studies, this gene has been related with a better outcome.

In silico evaluation of DNA Damage Inducible Transcript 4 gene (DDIT4) as prognostic biomarker in several malignancies.

DDIT4 gene encodes a protein whose main action is to inhibit mTOR under stress conditions whilst several in vitro studies indicate that its expression favors cancer progression. We have previously described that DDIT4 expression is an independent prognostic factor for tripe negative breast cancer resistant to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. We herein report that high DDIT4 expression is related to the outcome (recurrence-free survival, time to progression and overall survival) in several cancer types.

Cancer clinical research in Latin America: current situation and opportunities. Expert opinion from the first ESMO workshop on clinical trials, Lima, 2015.

Latin America and the Caribbean have not yet developed strong clinical cancer research programmes. In order to improve this situation two international cancer organisations, the Latin American Society of Clinical Oncology (SLACOM) and the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) worked closely with the Peruvian Cooperative Oncology Group (GECOPERU) and organised a clinical cancer research workshop held in Lima, Peru, in October 2015. Many oncologists from different Latin American countries participated in this gathering.