First-Line (1L) Treatment Decision Patterns and Survival of Hormone Receptor (HR)-Positive/HER2-Negative Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) Patients in a Latin American (LATAM) Public Institution.

Advanced breast cancer is an incurable disease, with a median overall survival of 3 years, including in countries without access problems. Although chemotherapy is reserved in some cases, it is still used in many countries as a first-line therapy. The aim of our study is to evaluate the first-line treatment choices and the factors that influence therapeutic decisions.

Temozolomide and capecitabine regimen as first-line treatment in advanced gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors at a Latin American reference center.

Background: Numerous studies have indicated that the temozolomide and capecitabine regimen (TEMCAP) exhibits a certain level of efficacy in treating advanced, well-differentiated gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NET). However, published data from Peru are limited. We hypothesize that this regimen could be a viable therapeutic option for advanced GEP-NET in the Peruvian population.

Impact on Survival with Immunotherapy and Evaluation of Biomarkers in Peruvian Patients with Advanced Melanoma.

Introduction: Advanced malignant melanoma is a very aggressive disease, historically with poor prognosis before the new advances with immunotherapy and targeted therapies that have changed the standard of care, especially in cutaneous melanoma. Peru has aggressive features such as higher rates of acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) subtype with historically shorter survival.

Methods: This study describes Peruvian patients with advanced melanoma treated with immunotherapy (nivolumab) in two oncological institutions (public and private), including the discussion of the impact on overall survival (OS) divided by subtype (with incidence in ALM histology) and potential biomarkers that could be related to prognosis.

Safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma for severe COVID-19: a randomized, single blinded, parallel, controlled clinical study.

Background: Convalescent plasma (CP) has been widely used to treat COVID-19 and is under study. However, the variability in the current clinical trials has averted its wide use in the current pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of CP in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the early stages of the disease.

Factors Associated With Diagnostic Delay of Axial Spondyloarthritis in Colombian Patients.

Background/objective: The diagnostic delay of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is globally reported to be between 3 and 11 years. Early diagnosis and treatment have long-term benefits for patients and the health care system. Several international studies have evaluated some factors associated with diagnostic delay, but there are no known studies in the Colombian population.

New insights into the taxonomy of autoimmune diseases based on polyautoimmunity.

Objective: The clinical coexistence of two or more autoimmune diseases (ADs) fulfilling classification criteria is termed "overt polyautoimmunity" (PolyA), whereas the presence of autoantibodies unrelated to an index AD, without clinical criteria fulfillment, is known as "latent PolyA". We aimed to explore a new taxonomy of ADs based on PolyA.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study of 292 subjects, we evaluated the presence of PolyA in 146, 45, 29, 17, and 17 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren's syndrome (SS), autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and systemic sclerosis (SSc), respectively, and 38 healthy controls.

Associations Between Structural and Social Determinants of Health With COVID Infection Rates at a Safety Net Hospital.

Background:  The reported disproportionate impact of COVID-19 infections on minority populations may be due to living in disinvested communities with a high level of poverty, pollution, inadequate unsafe employment, and overcrowded housing.

Objective:  To determine the association of county, city, and individual risk factors with COVID-19 infection rates.

Methods:  Retrospective chart review on COVID-19 tests performed from March through July 2020 at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC), Colton, California.

Polymyalgia rheumatica: A case series from Colombia and analysis of Latin America.

Objective: Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is the most common inflammatory disease in patients over 50 years. Information about the disease in Latin America (LATAM) is scarce. We aimed to evaluate a group of Colombian patients with PMR and to conduct a systematic review of PMR in LATAM.

Impact of the Delayed Initiation of Adjuvant Chemotherapy in the Outcome of Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

Background: Adjuvant chemotherapy decreases the recurrence risk and improves survival rates; however, it is unclear whether a delayed initiation is associated with adverse outcomes, especially in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). In this study, we evaluated the influence of the time to start adjuvant chemotherapy (TTC) in the outcomes of TNBC.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 15 years of data from patients with TNBC who received adjuvant chemotherapy at the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas (Lima, Peru).

Subcutaneous abatacept in rheumatoid arthritis: A real-life experience.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness, safety, and drug survival of subcutaneous (SC) abatacept (ABA) in a cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in a real-world setting.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study from 2014 to 2018 in which patients with RA (1987 ACR criteria) were included. Patients were evaluated at a single rheumatology outpatient center in Bogotá, Colombia.

Convalescent plasma in Covid-19: Possible mechanisms of action.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Therapeutic options including antimalarials, antivirals, and vaccines are under study. Meanwhile the current pandemic has called attention over old therapeutic tools to treat infectious diseases.

Myositis-Specific Antibodies and Myositis-Associated Antibodies in Patients With Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies From the PANLAR Myositis Study Group.

Background: Dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) are forms of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs), which are associated with the production of autoantibodies that are useful in the diagnosis and prognosis of the disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of antinuclear autoantibodies (ANAs), myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSAs), and myositis-associated autoantibodies (MAAs) in 6 Latin American countries.

Methods: Two hundred ten patients with IIM were included in this cross-sectional study from 2014 to 2017: 112 from Mexico, 46 from Colombia, 20 from Peru, 16 from the Dominican Republic, 10 from Argentina, and 6 from Guatemala.

Lung Cancer in the Young.

Introduction: Median age at diagnosis of lung cancer is 70 years. Its presentation in patients 40 or younger is uncommon and it has been proposed that maybe it is a different disease due to its clinical characteristics and genetic makeup. There are a limited number of studies in this population and they report different clinic-pathological characteristics in comparison with older patients.

Current situation of soft tissue sarcomas: Registry of a Latin American cancer institute.

Introduction: Soft tissue sarcomas (SFT) are a group of rare and heterogeneous neoplasms (representing less than 1% of cancer in adults and 15% in pediatric patients), for which there is no updated records in the Latin American population. This study aims to describe the current situation of patients treated at a cancer institute in Latin America.

Methods: We obtained records from 250 patients with a diagnosis of SFT, treated at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases of Peru (INEN) during the period 2009-2013, with a mean follow-up of 62 months.

Cytokine imbalance in patients with systemic sclerosis and resilience: the key role of interleukin-6.

Objectives: Resilience, the ability to respond positively to adverse events, may be influenced by long-term stressors and autoimmune/inflammatory conditions such as systemic sclerosis (SSc). Since the immune system plays a role in the development of resilience, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between a panel of cytokines and resilience in patients with SSc.

Methods: Thirty-five consecutive women with established SSc were involved in this exploratory study.

[Prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR) in patients who underwent radical gastrectomy].

Unlabelled: The study objective was to evaluate the prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR) in patients with gastric cancer who underwent radical gastrectomy D2.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed retrospectively 498 medical records of patients with gastric cancer who were attended at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases (INEN) between 2008 and 2011and met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were distributed into 4 groups according to their LNR, LNR0: 0, LNR1: 0-0.

Sjögren's Syndrome and Autoimmune Thyroid Disease: Two Sides of the Same Coin.

The coexistence of Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) has been documented. However, there is no consensus whether this coexistence should be considered as the same nosological condition or as polyautoimmunity. Thus, in this monocentric retrospective study, patients with SS alone (i.

[Anemia as a prognostic factor in cancer patients].

Objective.: To determine the frequency and prognostic value of anemia in cancer patients receiving care at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases (Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas - INEN) between January and April of 2010.

Materials And Methods.

[Optimal cytoreduction in advanced ovarian cancer treated with dose-dense paclitaxel and carboplatin followed by interval surgery at the Peruvian National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases].

Objectives: To determine the rate of optimal cytoreduction in patients with advanced ovarian cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy with dose-dense carboplatin and paclitaxel followed by interval debulking surgery (IDS).

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study of a series of cases of Peruvian women treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy with carboplatin (6 AUC mg/mL/min) and paclitaxel (80 mg/m2 weekly) followed by IDS, at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases during the 2010-2014 period.

Results: The 41 patients who made it to the interval surgery had a median age of 59 years (range: 47-73 years).

Oncological outcomes in extended time intervals betweenpreoperative chemoradiotherapy with capecitabine and surgery inoperable rectal adenocarcinoma.

Objective: To assess whether extended time intervals (8-12, 13-20 and >20 weeks) between the end of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery affect overall survival, disease-free survival.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective study in 120 patients with rectal adenocarcinoma without evidence of metastasis (T1-4/N0-2/M0) at the time of diagnosis that underwent surgery with curative intent after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with capecitabine and obtained R0 or R1 resection between January 2010 to December 2014 at the National Cancer Institute of Peru. Dates were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier method, log- rank test and Cox regression analysis.

Oncoplastic surgery for the conservative treatment of breast cancer in Perú's National Cancer Institute.

Background: Oncoplastic surgery for breast cancer (OPS) has been a surgical trend for the past 25 years. In 2012, OPS has been introduced as the standard treatment for a selected group of patients at the National Cancer Institute of Peru (INEN). The aim of this study is to describe our findings.

A Remote Sensing-Based Tool for Assessing Rainfall-Driven Hazards.

RainyDay is a Python-based platform that couples rainfall remote sensing data with Stochastic Storm Transposition (SST) for modeling rainfall-driven hazards such as floods and landslides. SST effectively lengthens the extreme rainfall record through temporal resampling and spatial transposition of observed storms from the surrounding region to create many extreme rainfall scenarios. Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves are often used for hazard modeling but require long records to describe the distribution of rainfall depth and duration and do not provide information regarding rainfall space-time structure, limiting their usefulness to small scales.

Resilience in women with autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between resilience and clinical outcomes in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Methods: Focus groups, individual interviews, and chart reviews were done to collect data on 188 women with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, namely rheumatoid arthritis (n=51), systemic lupus erythematosus (n=70), systemic sclerosis (n=35), and Sjögren's syndrome (n=32). Demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables were assessed including disease activity by patient reported outcomes.

Cytokine and autoantibody clusters interaction in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Background: Evidence supports the existence of different subphenotypes in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the pivotal role of cytokines and autoantibodies, which interact in a highly complex network. Thus, understanding how these complex nonlinear processes are connected and observed in real-life settings is a major challenge. Cluster approaches may assist in the identification of these subphenotypes, which represent such a phenomenon, and may contribute to the development of personalized medicine.

[Clinical-pathological features and survival in young women with cervical cancer: a retrospective analysis from the instituto nacional de enfermedades neoplásicas].

Objective: To determine the clinical and histological characteristics and prognostic factors of cervical cancer (CC) in young Peruvian patients.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients younger than 35 years old diagnosed with CC between 2008 and 2012 in the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas.

Results: 449 patients had epithelial neoplasms.