Clinical impact of the Mexican healthcare system "Seguro Popular" on breast cancer survival.

Abstract

6569 Background: Breast cancer (BC) is one of the leading issues in public health in low and middle-income countries. In Mexico, access to healthcare is fragmented according to the patient´s employment and not by its needs; IMSS and ISSTE (Social Security) provide access to prepaid medicine to those under the formal sector of the economy, leaving up to 50 million Mexicans without access to a prepaid scheme. In 2003, the Seguro Popular (SP) was created in order to bring universal access to prepaid medicine in Mexico, and in 2007 expanded its coverage for BC. Methods: Retrospective and comparative study. The primary endpoint was to determine the impact on survival of SP on BC. Records were obtained from the electronic database of the Hospital Universitario “Dr. José Eleuterio González”. We included patients with invasive BC stage I-IV. Patients with any other kind of healthcare schemes other than SP, patients who underwent treatment outside our institution, and those with a follow up no greater than 3 months were excluded. 104 patients from the period prior the implementation of the SP (2000-2007) met the criteria for evaluation; thereafter we randomly selected a second cohort with the same size from the period after the implementation of the SP (2008-2013). Results: Median age at diagnosis was 48 and 51 years, respectively, for the periods before and after the implementation of SP. Distribution by clinical stage (Non-SP vs SP): CS I, 4.8 vs 10%, CS II, 31 vs 44%, CS III, 52 vs 38%, and CS IV, 10 vs 6.7%. Molecular subtypes distribution (Non-SP vs SP): Luminal, 61 vs 62%, HER2 Positive (IHC+++/FISH+) 17 vs 22%, TNBC, 21 vs 18%, unknown 6.7 vs 5.7%. Regarding survival, we observed a statistically significant difference on progression-free survival and overall survival favoring the SP cohort; PFS at 5 years, 54 vs 81% (p = < 0.0001) and OS at 5-year, 72 vs 86% (p = 0.01). Conclusions: We present evidence that the Mexican healthcare scheme SP, created to bring medical access to those patients without prepaid health protection, provides a significant clinical benefit on survival (PFS and OS) in women with breast cancer.

Comparison of characteristics in Mexican women with breast cancer according to healthcare coverage

“…A study conducted at the Hospital Universitario "Dr. Jose Eleuterio Gonzalez," in Monterrey, Mexico, found an improvement in recurrence-free and overall survival when comparing patients diagnosed before and after BC inclusion within the coverage of Seguro Popular. 39 Likewise, a study conducted at the Instituto Nacional de Nutricion y Ciencias Medicas Salvador Zubirán, in Mexico City, found a higher recurrence rate in patients treated prior to the coverage of Seguro Popular than in patients covered by Seguro Popular. 40 Noteworthy, trends suggesting worse outcomes were observed in patients with public healthcare in stage III and triple negative disease.…”