The early referral for reduced-intensity stem cell transplantation in patients with ph1 (+) chronic myelogenous leukemia in chronic phase in the imatinib era: Results of the Latin American Cooperative Oncohematology Group (LACOHG) prospective, multicenter study

Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic leukemia in Mexico

“…17 BMT is considered the only curative therapy for the treatment of CML patients in Mexico. 18 It is estimated that with the costs of less than one year of TKI treatment, it is possible to defray a complete BMT by means of the "Mexican method", characterized by reduced-intensity conditioning on an outpatient basis. In many cases in Mexico, decisions on whether to offer TKI or BMT treatment to CML patients depend on economic conditions, access to public or private health services, and stable employment.…”

“…The "Mexican method" for bone marrow transplant in patients with leukemia has been implemented in other countries with unfavorable economies, such as ours, and has shown similar outcomes. 18,19 The availability of molecular biology methods for the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with this neoplasm has considerably improved its prognosis. 16 Compared with other leukemias, CML has shown the most improved prognosis during the last decade due to the availability of molecular treatment and BMT implementation.…”

Cytogenetic response to prior treatment with interferon-α is predictive for survival after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in chronic myeloid leukemia

“…This might relate to patients with high risk of progression despite initial response, to patients with early loss of molecular response or to places where the more favourable costs of HSCT as compared to continuous drug therapy need to be considered. 21,22 Table 3 Associations between survival time after HSCT and patient characteristics identified using Cox regression with stepwise-selection procedure (n ¼ 146 patients evaluable) Response to prior IFN and outcome after allogeneic HSCT O Maywald et al…”

Hematopoietic stem cell transplants for chronic myeloid leukemia in Europe—Impact of cost considerations

“…The data from this activity survey of the EBMT reflect that such considerations apparently already take place and that countries with GNIs in the World Bank category of middle income have adapted more rapidly to such considerations. Such thoughts have been expressed recently by the SouthAmerican and Mexican Blood and Marrow Transplant Group 20 and at meetings in Eastern Europe. 13 As shown by the data, cost considerations between two possible procedures are still irrelevant in low income countries where costs of either procedure are too high for the population at large and where access to any high cost procedure such as HSCT remains as difficult as has been discussed already two decades ago for Eastern European countries.…”

“…Main cost factors in HSCT are hospital room costs, drug expenditures and salaries for physicians and nursing staff. 13,18,[20][21][22] Hospital costs and salaries vary more markedly between countries and are primarily influenced by the general income of the respective countries. This is not the case for new drugs as illustrated by this analysis, drug costs for imatinib are the same throughout Europe.…”