In a collaborative work carried out by the Spanish and Portuguese ISFG Working Group (GEP-ISFG), a polymerase chain reaction multiplex was optimized in order to type ten X-chromosome short tandem repeats (STRs) in a single reaction, including: DXS8378, DXS9902, DXS7132, DXS9898, DXS6809, DXS6789, DXS7133, GATA172D05, GATA31E08, and DXS7423. Using this X-decaplex, each 17 of the participating laboratories typed a population sample of approximately 200 unrelated individuals (100 males and 100 females). In this work, we report the allele frequencies for the ten X-STRs in 15 samples from Argentina (Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Río Negro, Entre Ríos, and Misiones), Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, and Mato Grosso do Sul), Colombia (Antioquia), Costa Rica, Portugal (Northern and Central regions), and Spain (Galicia and Cantabria). Gene diversities were calculated for the ten markers in each population and all values were above 56%. The average diversity per locus varied between 66%, for DXS7133, and 82%, for DXS6809. For this set of STRs, a high discrimination power was obtained in all populations, both in males (> or =1 in 5 x 10(5)) and females (> or =1 in 3 x 10(9)), as well as high mean exclusion chance in father/daughter duos (> or =99.953%) and in father/mother/daughter trios (> or =99.999%). Genetic distance analysis showed no significant differences between northern and central Portugal or between the two Spanish samples from Galicia and Cantabria. Inside Brazil, significant differences were found between Rio de Janeiro and the other three populations, as well as between São Paulo and Paraná. For the five Argentinean samples, significant distances were only observed when comparing Misiones with Entre Ríos and with Río Negro, the only two samples that do not differ significantly from Costa Rica. Antioquia differed from all other samples, except the one from Río Negro.

Introduction: In Colombia it is necessary to continue producing quality and continuously updated information on the magnitude of cancer, derived from population-based cancer registries to contribute to decision making, and implementation of strategies for health promotion, prevention and treatment of cancer in order to reduce the impact on the population.Objective: To describe the incidence, mortality and cancer trends in Pasto-Colombia from 1998 to 2012.Methods: Observational descriptive study of morbi - mortality due to malignant tumours in Pasto. The collection, processing and systematization of the data, was carried out according to international standards for population-based cancer registries. The incidence and mortality rates were calculated by period, sex, age and tumour site.Results: During the period 1998-2012 there were 8,010 new cases of cancer, of them, 57.7% occurred in females. There were 4,214 deaths reported, 52.0% in females. The incidence (p men= 0.7, p females= 0.3) and mortality (p males= 1.0, p females= 0.0) did not present significant changes over 15 years of observation and the tumours that cause greater morbi-mortality affect the stomach, cervix uteri, breast and prostate.Conclusions: Cancer in general, continues to be a serious health problem for the population of Pasto. The global behaviour of cancer incidence and mortality, identify the need to promote and strengthen promotion and prevention programs, especially focused on tumours of the stomach, prostate, breast and cervix uteri that produce greater morbidity and mortality in the population.

Introduction: In Colombia, information on cancer morbidity at the population level is limited. Incidence es­timates for most regions are based on mortality data. To improve the validity of these estimates, it is necessary that other population-based cancer registries, as well as Cali, provide cancer risk information. Objective: To describe the incidence and cancer mortality in the municipality of Pasto within the 1998-2007 period. Methodology: The study population belongs to rural and urban areas of the municipality of Pasto. Collection, processing, and systematization of the data were performed according to internationally standardized parame­ters for population-based cancer registries. The cancer incidence and mortality rates were calculated by gender, age, and tumor site. Results: During the 1998-2007 period 4,986 new cases of cancer were recorded of which 57.7% were in female. 2,503 deaths were presented, 52% in female. Neoplasm-associated infections are the leading cause of cancer morbidity in Pasto: stomach cancer in males and cervical cancer in females. Discussion: Cancer in general is a major health problem for the population of the municipality of Pasto. The overall behavior of the increasing incidence and cancer mortality in relation to other causes of death show the need to implement and strengthen prevention and promotion programs, focusing especially on tumors that produce greater morbidity and mortality in the population.

Background. Estimation of survival requires follow-up of patients from diagnosis until death ensuring complete and good quality data. Many population-based cancer registries in low- and middle-income countries have difficulties linking registry data with regional or national vital statistics, increasing the chances of cases lost to follow-up. The impact of lost to follow-up cases on survival estimates from small population-based cancer registries (<500 cases) has been understudied, and bias could be larger than in larger registries. Methods. We simulated scenarios based on idealized real data from three population-based cancer registries to assess the impact of loss to follow-up on 1-5-year overall and net survival for stomach, colon, and thyroid cancers—cancer types with very different prognosis. Multiple scenarios with varying of lost to follow-up proportions (1-20%) and sample sizes of (100-500 cases) were carried out. We investigated the impact of excluding versus censoring lost to follow-up cases; punctual and bootstrap confidence intervals for the average bias are presented. Results. Censoring of lost to follow-up cases lead to overestimation of the overall survival, this effect was strongest for cancers with a poor prognosis and increased with follow-up time and higher proportion of lost to follow-up cases; these effects were slightly larger for net survival than overall survival. Excluding cases lost to follow-up did not generate a bias on survival estimates on average, but in individual cases, there were under- and overestimating survival. For gastric, colon, and thyroid cancer, relative bias on 5-year cancer survival with 1% of lost to follow-up varied between 6% and 125%, 2% and 40%, and 0.1% and 1.0%, respectively. Conclusion. Estimation of cancer survival from small population-based registries must be interpreted with caution: even small proportions of censoring, or excluding lost to follow-up cases can inflate survival, making it hard to interpret comparison across regions or countries.

Determinantes sociodemográficos y clínicos asociados a mortalidad fetal intrauterina en el municipio de Pasto, 2010-2012Demographic and clinical determinants associated with intrauterine fetal mortality in the municipality of Pasto, 2010Pasto, -2012 Daniel Jurado-Fajardo 1,2* orcid.org/0000-0003-0628-0253Melissa Catherine Chaves-Marcillo 3 orcid.org/0000-0001-9876-4065Annyi Tatiana Belalcázar-Fajardo 3 orcid.org/0000-0002-4025-3497Denny Marcela Achicanoy-Puchana 3 orcid.org/0000-0001-8555-0084Carlos Andrés Guerrero 3 orcid.org/0000-0002-3197-4321Carmen Eugenia Quiñonez-Arteaga 1,4 orcid.org/0000-0003-3495-2272Luisa Mercedes Bravo-Goyes 1,2 orcid.org/0000-0002-6440-8289 Resumen Introducción: La mortalidad fetal intrauterina (MFIU) es un problema de salud pública por sus elevadas tasas a nivel mundial y en poblaciones de ingresos medios y bajos. Sin embargo, es un evento poco estudiado y carece de visibilidad en las políticas, planes y programas de salud pública. Objetivo: Analizar los determinantes sociodemográficos y clínicos asociados a la MFIU en Pasto-Colombia. Materiales y métodos: Estudio analítico observacional con 88 muertes fetales como casos y 88 nacidos vivos como controles, ocurridas en hospitales de tercer nivel en el municipio de Pasto-Colombia durante 2010-2012, para determinar la relación entre mortalidad fetal, condiciones clínicas (complicaciones del embarazo, edad gestacional, peso al nacer, controles prenatales, antecedentes obstétricos, tóxicos o aborto) y sociodemográficas (edad, etnia, ocupación, estado civil, estrato, zona de residencia, escolaridad, paridad, condición de desplazamiento, embarazo planeado). Resultados: Se identificó que el riesgo de mortalidad fetal es significativamente menor con el incremento de la edad gestacional (OR ajustado=0,76 IC95% 0,62; 0,93) y el peso al nacer (OR ajustado=0,99 IC95% 0,98; 0,99). Otras variables clínicas y sociodemográficas no se asociaron. Conclusión: Los resultados proveen evidencia para la planificación de planes de intervención que prioricen a mujeres cuyo feto tenga un peso inferior al normal y un riesgo de nacimiento prematuro. The results provide evidence for planning intervention plans that prioritize women whose fetus has a lower-than-normal weight and a risk of premature birth.