This study aimed to investigate prognosis and survival differences in 82 breast cancer patients with germline pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants (PVs) treated and followed at the Breast Unit of the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Colombia (INC-C) between 2018 and 2021. Median age at diagnosis was 46 years, with 62.2% presenting locally advanced tumors, 47.6% histological grade 3, and 35.4% with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtype. Most carriers, 74.4% (61/82), had PVs in known breast cancer susceptibility genes (i.e., “associated gene carriers” group, considered inherited breast cancer cases): BRCA2 (30), BRCA1 (14), BARD1 (4), RAD51D (3), TP53 (2), PALB2 (2), ATM (2), CHEK2 (1), RAD51C (1), NF1 (1), and PTEN (1). BRCA1-2 represented 53.7%, and homologous recombination DNA damage repair (HR-DDR) genes associated with breast cancer risk accounted for 15.9%. Patients with PVs in non-breast-cancer risk genes were combined in a different category (21/82; 25.6%) (i.e., “non-associated gene carriers” group, considered other breast cancer cases). Median follow-up was 38.1 months, and 24% experienced recurrence, with 90% being distant. The 5-year Disease-Free Survival (DFS) for inherited breast cancer cases was 66.5%, and for other breast cancer cases it was 88.2%. In particular, for carriers of PVs in the BRCA2 gene, it was 37.6%. The 5-year Overall Survival (OS) rates ranged from 68.8% for those with PVs in BRCA2 to 100% for those with PVs in other HR-DDR genes. Further studies are crucial for understanding tumor behavior and therapy response differences among Colombian breast cancer patients with germline PVs.

Background: Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) is one of the major surgical advances in breast cancer treatment. This study evaluated the oncological outcomes of BCS in patients with non-metastatic breast cancer at a referral cancer center in a medium-resource country between 2013 and 2019. Methods: An observational, analytical, retrospective cohort study was conducted on patients with stage I–IIIC breast cancer treated at the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (Bogotá, Colombia) from September 2013 to March 2019. Demographic data, tumor characteristics, treatment types, and survival outcomes were retrospectively collected. Results: A total of 409 patients were included. In 64.1% of cases, BCS was performed as the initial treatment and in 35.9%, after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). With a median follow-up of 85.2 months, tumor recurrence was documented in 9.04% of patients, local recurrence in 2.9%, regional in 2.2%, and distant in 5.6%. The identified risk factors for mortality were a locally advanced clinical stage (HR 5.13; p = 0.01), triple-negative subtype (HR 8.02; p < 0.01), and nodal involvement of more than four lymph nodes in the surgical specimen (HR 4.00; p < 0.01). Conclusions: Breast-conserving surgery is an oncologically safe procedure for patients with early and locally advanced breast cancer who respond to NACT. The time to recurrence and overall survival are determined by the clinical stage, axillary tumor burden, and biological subtype of the disease.

Background/Objectives: De-escalation of axillary surgery with sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has been shown to decrease morbidity in breast cancer patients without affecting oncological outcomes. However, there are very few reports on its applicability in real-world clinical practice, especially in middle-income countries. Methods: A retrospective historical cohort study was conducted, including 787 patients with clinical stage I–IIIA breast cancer treated from 2013 to 2023 at the INC in Colombia. Two groups were analyzed based on the timing of the axillary procedure: patients undergoing SLNB as initial surgery (Upfront SLNB) and those receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (Post-NACT SLNB). Results: The overall sentinel lymph node (SLN) identification rate was 99.3%. SLN positivity was 32% in Upfront SLNB and 13.1% in Post-NACT SLNB. Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) was omitted in 56% of patients with node-positive Upfront SLNB; it was avoided in 86.8% of the Post-NACT group with complete axillary response (ypN0). Regional recurrence rates were 2.33%. In multivariate analysis, the main factors linked to recurrence and mortality were triple-negative and luminal B HER2-negative biological subtypes, histological grade 2, and tumor size ≥ 2 cm. At 60 months of follow-up, 91.4% (95% CI: 88.9–93.9) of patients remained recurrence-free (time-recurrence (TR)), and overall survival (OS) was 96.1% (95% CI: 94.5–97.7), with no differences observed based on the axillary surgical strategy. Conclusions: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is an oncologically safe procedure for patients with early-stage and locally advanced breast cancer with an adequate response to neoadjuvant systemic treatment.

Objective: The standard of care in first relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (R/R HL) is salvage therapy, including high-dose chemotherapy (HDT), followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). To date, this treatment approach has been shown to improve event-free survival (EFS), progression-free survival (PFS), and freedom from treatment failure (FFTF) in controlled clinical trials. This study aims to determine the outcomes of patients with HL using this strategy at first relapse but in real-world practice in Colombia before the widespread use of novel agents such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Methods: We present a retrospective case series of patients diagnosed with R/R HL treated at the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (INC) (Bogotá, Colombia) between 2013 and 2017. Results: We found 31 patients with R/R HL fulfilling the inclusion criteria from a 171-patient database. The most widely used regimens were platinum-based, followed by gemcitabine-based regimens. Chemotherapy-sensitive disease was demonstrated in 16 (51.6%) patients, where the majority achieved complete response (CR). In the entire cohort, overall survival (OS) and PFS were lower than the rates reported in other series. Patients who ultimately did undergo ASCT had the best PFS and OS compared to those who did not. Conclusion: Our retrospective case series showed that responses and survivals are lower than those reported in the literature. ASCT is essential for achieving a potential cure in R/R HL patients with chemotherapy-sensitive disease. Health systems must guarantee access to transplantation for all patients who are candidates for this therapy.

Objetivo: los tumores de células germinales (TCG) testiculares son la principal causa de cáncer en hombres con edades de 15 a 45 años. El tratamiento comprende la orquiectomía radical y, en pacientes con tumores metastásicos, se da manejo adyuvante con quimioterapia basada en platino. Se ha reportado enfermedad residual pulmonar posterior a la primera línea de quimioterapia en el 25,0 % de los casos, en los que la metastasectomía pulmonar es esencial para excluir actividad residual tumoral. El objetivo de este estudio consistió en describir los desenlaces clínicos de los pacientes con TCG testiculares llevados a metastasectomía pulmonar entre 2010 y 2023, tras recibir quimioterapia adyuvante, en el Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (INC) de Colombia. Métodos: se realizó un estudio descriptivo, longitudinal, retrospectivo. Se describieron las tendencias en la supervivencia global (SG) y en la supervivencia libre de progresión (SLP) según algunas características de relevancia clínica en estos pacientes. Resultados: se incluyeron 19 pacientes. A los 24 meses, la SG fue del 89,2 %, y la SLP fue del 63,6 %. Las mayores estimaciones de SG y SLP se observaron en pacientes con enfermedad metastásica pulmonar al momento del diagnóstico; además, se obtuvieron estimaciones altas de SG en aquellos con clasificación pronóstica de bajo riesgo según el Grupo Colaborativo Internacional sobre Cáncer de Células Germinales (IGCCCG) y de SLP en pacientes con hallazgo histopatológico de ausencia de viabilidad tumoral en la resección pulmonar posterior a la quimioterapia. Conclusiones: la metastasectomía pulmonar constituye una alternativa terapéutica relevante en pacientes con TCG testiculares y enfermedad pulmonar residual tras quimioterapia. En esta cohorte se observaron resultados favorables de supervivencia, especialmente en pacientes con características clínicas e histopatológicas que otros estudios han vinculado con un mejor pronóstico.