Publications by authors named "K van Loon"
Objective: Few studies characterizing clinical outcomes of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients in sub-Saharan Africa report the proportion of patients who initiate and complete treatment, information integral to contextualizing survival outcomes. This retrospective cohort study describes HNC patients who presented to Muhimbili National Hospital and Ocean Road Cancer Institute in 2018, the highest-volume oncology tertiary referral centers in Tanzania. Logistic regression was applied to assess predictors of treatment initiation and completion.
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- The study assessed 5-year survival rates for colorectal cancer patients in Mexico who were treated under Seguro Popular, a public health insurance system.
- It involved 1418 patients diagnosed between 2013 and 2016, revealing an overall survival rate of 50% and noting that 78.1% were diagnosed at advanced stages (III and IV).
- Findings emphasized the importance of early screening, particularly as younger patients with metastatic disease had a poorer prognosis compared to older patients.
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- A study was conducted to evaluate the STRAT4 Assay's effectiveness using fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) samples for breast cancer testing in Tanzania, aiming to improve biomarker accessibility in low-resource settings.
- The research involved collecting FNAB specimens from patients with palpable breast masses, using various testing protocols and excluding those with previous breast cancer diagnoses or specific conditions like pregnancy.
- The analysis compared STRAT4's performance against established testing methods based on factors like concordance, sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy over a three-year period involving 208 patients.
Clinical practice guidelines are widely used in oncology to guide clinical decision making and inform health policy and planning. In recent years, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, as well as other international groups, have developed resource-stratified guidelines to guide clinicians and policymakers on cancer diagnosis and management in settings with various levels of resource constraints. Current methods for developing resource-stratified guidelines rely heavily on supporting evidence originating from high-income countries.
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