‘Exciting’ Discoveries at Oncology Conferences Not Always Accessible to Everyone

This Blog post represents a partnership between the Women in Medicine Summit and Healio Women in Oncology. An excerpt appears blow, and please find the full length piece at Healio’s Women in Oncology Blog

I am a medical oncologist from Mexico City and my main practice is at an academic institution where we mostly focus on patients with breast cancer. However, like many oncologists in Mexico, I also have some private practice where I see patients with all cancer types.

Since becoming an oncologist, every time I attend a conference and witness a new positive study about a novel treatment that everyone gets excited about, I get a bittersweet feeling.

‘Left out’

I recently attended the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, and this time was no exception. Among all the excitement and hope of groundbreaking and innovative treatments, I — and most importantly, my patients — are left out. My first thoughts are: When will I be able to use these new treatments and in whom will I be able to use them?

Unfortunately, the answers to those questions tend to be complicated at best, as the time from the approval of a drug by the U.S. FDA until approval by regulatory authorities in other countries, including Mexico, can be quite long.

For example, the FDA approved trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu; AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo) in December 2019 for HER2-positive advanced breast cancer, and later in August 2022 for HER2-low advanced breast cancer. I still remember the standing ovation at its presentation at ASCO 2022.

In Mexico, however, this drug was only approved for these indications by the national drug agency, COFEPRIS, in March 2023 — more than 2 years after its initial U.S. approval.

About the author: Haydeé Verduzco-Aguirre, MD, is an oncologist at Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubirán, Mexico City, Mexico, and oncology fellow at Costs of Care.