Nora Álvarez-Águila, Department of Radiotherapy, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Mexico City, Mexico
Hilary Cook, Harvard Global Equity Initiative, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Diddier G. Prada-Ortega, Cancer Biomedical Research Unit, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, SSA-Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); Department of Biomedical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, UNAM; Mexico City, Mexico
Aida Mota-García, Department of Radiotherapy, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Mexico City, Mexico
Luis A. Herrera, Biomedical Research Unit in Cancer, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología and Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
Alejandro Mohar, Department of Research and Breast Tumors, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (INCan), Mexico City;; Joven & Fuerte: Program for the Care and Research of Young Women with Breast Cancer in Mexico, Mexico City; Unidad de Epidemiología e Investigación Biomédica en Cáncer, INCan-UNAM, Mexico City; Mexico
Abelardo Meneses-García, Biomedical Research Unit in Cancer, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología and Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
Felicia M. Knaul, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Coral Gables, Florida, USA; University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas, Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Programa Universalidad y Competitividad en Salud, Fundación Mexicana para la Salud, Mexico City, Mexico; Asociación 'Tómatelo a Pecho', Mexico City, Mexico
Background: Radiation therapy is a keystone to improve survival and quality of life in breast cancer patients. In Mexico, however, scarce information is available on the obstacles faced by radio-oncologists to provide appropriate treatment. Objective: To determine the most frequent issues faced by physicians to provide radiation therapy for metastatic breast cancer in Mexico. Methods: A survey of 16 multiple-choice questions to be answered electronically by 167 radio-oncologists currently working in Mexico was designed and thereafter analyzed for differences between private and public practices, based on the responses from the surveyed participants. Results: 98.5% of surveyed responders attended patients with breast cancer. We observed a significant difference between private vs. public practice for the main difficulties in providing radiation therapy, with an increased frequency (85.8%) of “treatment cost by itself” in private practice vs. 50.7% in public practice (p < 0.05). Significant differences were observed in the “Time to initiate treatment” question, with “Less than one week” as the response in 86% of those physicians in private practice vs. 50% for those in public practice (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Using a survey targeted at radiooncologists,we analyzed the most important obstacles for accessing radiation therapy for metastatic breast cancer in Mexico. This information may be useful for healthcare decisions related to radiation therapy in women with breast cancer in Mexico.
Keywords: Breast cancer. Mexico. National survey. Palliative care. Radiation therapy.