BACKGROUND: Cancer diagnosis influences the choices that patients make regarding current and future labor market activity. These choices have implications for governments based on resulting changes in taxes paid and benefits received. In this analysis we explore how human growth receptor 2 (HER2)-positive residual invasive breast cancer and different treatments influence government accounts excluding health costs.
METHODS: HER2-positive early breast cancer (eBC) health states from a published disease model were used to establish likelihood of working and wage impact at different stages of disease. The indirect productivity losses for an average woman aged 49 years were translated into fiscal consequences to government by applying an established government perspective-modeling framework. The fiscal projections (discounted) include gross tax revenue by disease stage, government transfer costs related to time off work and early retirement ,and net fiscal balance (e.g., gross taxes-transfers) in three countries Canada, Portugal, and Brazil.
RESULTS: The net fiscal balance in Canada for a healthy woman was C$109,551 compared with a HER2-positive eBC woman treated with trastuzumab emtansine (C$69,767) or trastuzumab (C$62,971). A similar pattern was observed in the three countries but reflecting the overall tax burden in each country, labor force activity, and available public benefits. Age at diagnosis was an important determinant of the likely net fiscal balance, as this influences the remaining working years.
CONCLUSIONS: Women diagnosed with HER2-positive eBC were estimated to pay less lifetime gross taxes and receive more in sickness benefits compared with healthy women. Treatments that improve outcomes are likely to offer fiscal gains for government from improved work force participation.

Background In gallbladder cancer (GBC), extrahepatic bile duct (EHBD) resection is selectively performed if gross direct extension or microscopic involvement of the cystic duct margin (CDM) is detected. Although CDM is usually sent for frozen biopsy intraoperatively in most centers, there are no studies regarding the routine use of CDM frozen biopsy irrespective of the tumor location and paucity of literature regarding the impact of CDM status on recurrence-free and overall survival in GBC. The presence of obstructive jaundice in GBC usually indicates the involvement of EHBD or cystic duct-bile duct junction. The present study aimed to analyze the necessity of routine CDM frozen biopsy in patients with resectable GBC without jaundice, regardless of the tumor location. The impact of positive CDM on survival was also evaluated. Methods This retrospective observational case-control study was conducted from May 2009 to March 2021 and included 105 patients with resectable GBC without macroscopic EHBD infiltration and jaundice. Patients were divided into CDM-negative (n=91) and CDM-positive (n=14) groups. Propensity score matching was performed for variables such as performance status, tumor size, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, and adjuvant chemotherapy. After propensity score matching, 27 patients (CDM-negative=13, CDM-positive=14) were included. The primary outcome was to analyze the role of routine CDM frozen biopsy regardless of tumor location, and secondary outcomes were to study the impact of positive CDM status on survival and evaluate predictive factors for CDM positivity. A subgroup analysis was conducted to assess clinicopathologic characteristics and outcomes of the anatomical location of the tumor. Results Of 105 patients, 91 had negative CDM, and 14 had positive CDM. Among 14 patients with positive CDM, only one patient had a tumor in the fundus/body, and the remaining had a tumor involving the neck. All CDM-positive patients underwent bile duct excision with hepaticojejunostomy. Common bile duct (CBD) involvement was present in 50% of patients with positive CDM in the final histopathological examination. In the matched population, patients with positive CDM had a significantly higher rate of neck tumors (p=0.001). Recurrence-free survival (24 vs. 12 months, p=0.30) and overall survival (24.5 vs. 20 months, p=0.417) were comparable between CDM-negative and CDM-positive groups, respectively. On multivariate analysis, preoperative and intraoperative tumor location were independent predictive factors for CDM positivity. On subgroup analysis, 30 patients had tumor involving the neck of the gallbladder, and the remaining 75 had at the fundus and body of the gallbladder. Neck tumors had inferior recurrence-free survival (17 vs. 30 months, p=0.012) and overall survival (24 vs. 36 months, p=0.048) compared to non-neck tumors. Conclusions Routine use of CDM frozen analysis in patients with resectable GBC without jaundice, regardless of tumor location, can be avoided. It can be selectively preferred in patients with GBC involving the neck since tumor location is found to be an independent predictive factor for CDM positivity. Positive CDM has comparable survival outcomes to negative CDM, providing a similar R0 resection rate and tumor stage. However, neck tumors have a worse prognosis than non-neck tumors.

Early detection of breast cancer (BC) through mammography screening (MAM) is known to reduce mortality. We examined the differential effect that mammography has on BC characteristics and overall survival and the sociodemographic determinants of MAM utilization in a multi-ethnic Asian population.
This study included 3739 BC patients from the Singapore Breast Cancer Cohort (2010-2018). Self-reported sociodemographic characteristics were collected using a structured questionnaire. Clinical data were obtained through medical records. Patients were classified as screeners (last screening mammogram ≤ 2 years before diagnosis), non-screeners (aware but did not attend or last screen > 2years), and those unaware of MAM. Associations between MAM behaviour (MB) and sociodemographic factors and MB and tumour characteristics were examined using multinomial regression. Ten-year overall survival was modelled using Cox regression.
Patients unaware of screening were more likely diagnosed with late stage (ORstage III vs stage I (Ref) [95% CI]: 4.94 [3.45-7.07], p < 0.001), high grade (ORpoorly vs well-differentiated (reference): 1.53 [1.06-2.20], p = 0.022), nodal-positive, large size (OR>5cm vs ≤2cm (reference): 5.06 [3.10-8.25], p < 0.001), and HER2-positive tumours (ORHER2-negative vs HER2-positive (reference): 0.72 [0.53-0.97], p = 0.028). Similar trends were observed between screeners and non-screeners with smaller effect sizes. Overall survival was significantly shorter than screeners in the both groups (HRnon-screeners: 1.89 [1.22-2.94], p = 0.005; HRunaware: 2.90 [1.69-4.98], p < 0.001). Non-screeners and those unaware were less health conscious, older, of Malay ethnicity, less highly educated, of lower socioeconomic status, more frequently ever smokers, and less physically active. Among screeners, there were more reported personal histories of benign breast surgeries or gynaecological conditions and positive family history of breast cancer.
Mammography attendance is associated with more favourable BC characteristics and overall survival. Disparities in the utility of MAM services suggest that different strategies may be needed to improve MAM uptake.

Testicular cancer is considered to be the model for the curable neoplasm, with outcomes improving from nearly universal fatality to nearly universal cure in the matter of two decades, driven largely in part by the accidental discovery and application of platinum chemotherapy. Such a diagnosis and treatment can have significant and long-lasting effects on patients, although with every such experience come learning opportunities. This autobiographical case report describes the author\'s experience being diagnosed with testicular cancer, the challenges faced during treatment and survivorship, the lessons learned being a patient, and the way they guided him on his path to his current role as an adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncologist.

Multiple primary malignancies (MPM) are described as two or more primary tumors within the same individual. The impact of MPM on the tumor microenvironment among patients with melanoma is poorly understood. Here, we describe this unique group of patients who have both advanced melanoma and at least one other primary malignancy and report their survival outcomes. In this study, patients with advanced melanoma and a second primary malignancy were identified. Medical records were reviewed for cancer treatment history. Kaplan-Meier methods were used to derive survival curves and estimate overall survival (OS), and log-rank tests were used to compare OS. Among 11 MPM patients, the most common non-melanoma cancers were breast (n = 3) and thyroid (n = 3). Median OS was 153.5 months for all patients. Median OS for synchronous MPM (sMPM) and metachronous MPM (mMPM) were 83.1 and 196.7 months, respectively (p= 0.10). Median OS was not reached when melanoma was diagnosed first, and 153.5 months when diagnosed second (p= 0.45). For six patients receiving immunotherapy for melanoma, there was a 100% complete response rate. In conclusion, patients with melanoma are at risk of secondary malignancies, including breast and thyroid cancer. The timing of secondary malignancies may impact prognosis. Further study of the impact of immunotherapy on MPM is warranted.

To improve cancer survival rates and prognosis, one of the first steps is to improve our understanding of contributory factors associated with cancer survival. Prior research has suggested that cancer survival is influenced by multiple factors from multiple levels. Most of existing analyses of cancer survival used data from a single source. Nevertheless, there are key challenges in integrating variables from different sources. Data integration is a daunting task because data from different sources can be heterogeneous in syntax, schema, and particularly semantics. Thus, we propose to adopt a semantic data integration approach that generates a universal conceptual representation of \"information\" including data and their relationships. This paper describes a case study of semantic data integration linking three data sets that cover both individual and contextual level factors for the purpose of assessing the association of the predictors of interest with cancer survival using cox proportional hazard models.

BACKGROUND: Overall survival after cancer is frequently used when assessing a health care service\'s performance as a whole. It is mainly used by the public, politicians and the media, and is often dismissed by clinicians because of the heterogeneous mix of different cancers, risk factors and treatment modalities. Here we give survival details for all cancers combined in Europe, correlating it with economic variables to suggest reasons for differences.
METHODS: We computed age and cancer site case-mix standardised relative survival for all cancers combined (ACRS) for 29 countries participating in the EUROCARE-5 project with data on more than 7.5million cancer cases from 87 population-based cancer registries, using complete and period approach.
RESULTS: Denmark, United Kingdom (UK) and Eastern European countries had lower survival than neighbouring countries. Five-year ACRS has been increasing throughout Europe, and substantial increases, between 1999-2001 and 2005-2007, have been achieved in countries where survival was lower in the past. Five-year ACRS for men and women are positively correlated with macro-economic variables like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Total National Expenditure on Health (TNEH) (R2 about 70%). Countries with recent larger increases in GDP and TNEH had greater increases in cancer survival.
CONCLUSIONS: ACRS serves to compare all cancer survival in Europe taking account of the geographical variability in case-mixes. The EUROCARE-5 data on ACRS confirm previous EUROCARE findings. Survival appears to correlate with macro-economic determinants, particularly with investments in the health care system.