Objetivo: Medir el riesgo anual de infección tuberculosa (RAIT) y estimar su tendencia evolutiva en escolares del distrito de Trujillo y El Porvenir. Material y métodos: Se realizó un estudio observacional, transversal, prospectivo y randomizado, en 1324 niños de 6 a 9 años de edad, no vacunados con BCG de 34 escuelas de Trujillo y 16 de El Porvenir el 1987 y repetida en 920 escolares de la misma edad, escuelas, distritos y equipos técnicos en 1993. A todos los niños, se les aplicó 0.1 ml de PPD intracutánea. Se midió la induración 48-72 horas después y se consideró positiva aquella con diámetro > 10 mm. Resultados: Primera encuesta: En Trujillo la prevalencia de infección tuberculosa (PIT) fue de 6.3 y el RAIT de 0.93%. En El Porvenir, la PIT fue 9.5% y RAIT 1.27%. Segunda encuesta: En Trujillo, la PIT fue 5.5% y RAIT 0.78%, mientras que en El Porvenir, la PIT fue ...

Background: Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is used in clinical research to identify biomarkers for diagnosis of and follow-up on cancer. Here, we propose a fast and innovative approach using traditional housekeeping genes as cfDNA targets in a copy number analysis. We focus on the application of highly sensitive technology such as digital PCR (dPCR) to differentiate breast cancer (BC) patients and controls by quantifying regions of PUM1 and RPPH1 (RNase P) in plasma samples. Methods: We conducted a case-control study with 82 BC patients and 82 healthy women. cfDNA was isolated from plasma using magnetic beads and quantified by spectrophotometry to estimate total cfDNA. Then, both PUM1 and RPPH1 genes were specifically quantified by dPCR. Data analysis was calibrated using a reference genomic DNA in different concentrations.Results: We found RNase P and PUM1 values were correlated in the patient g...

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive form of breast cancer with limited options of targeted therapy. Recent findings suggest that the clinical course of TNBC may be modified by the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and chemokine's expression, such as CCL5. Diverse studies have shown that CCL5 suppresses anti-tumor immunity and it has been related to poor outcome in different types of cancer while in other studies, this gene has been related with a better outcome. We sought to determine the association of CCL5 with the recruitment of TILs and other immune cells. With this aim we evaluated a retrospective cohort of 72 TNBC patients as well as publicly available datasets. TILs were correlated with residual tumor size after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and CCL5 expression. In univariate analysis, TILs and CCL5 were both associated to the distant recur...

Breast cancer (BC) is a highly prevalent malignancy in Latin American women, most cases being diagnosed at locally advanced or metastatic stages when options for cancer care are limited. Despite its label as a public health problem in the region, Latin American BC patients face several barriers in accessing standard of care treatment when compared with patients from developed countries. In this review, we analyse the landscape of the four main identified barriers in the region: i) high burden of locally advanced/advanced BC; ii) inadequate access to medical resources; iii) deficient access to specialised cancer care and iv) insufficient BC research in Latin America. Unfortunately, these barriers represent the main factors associated with the BC poor outcomes seen in the region. Targeted actions should be conducted independently by each country and as a region to overcome these limitation...