PUB107 Cancer Genomic Resources and Needs in the Latin American Region

Abstract

One of the priorities of cancer control within the Latin American (LA) region is to reduce avoidable deaths from cancer by improving early detection and personalized treatment. The development of cancer genomics and their integration to cancer care has shown a great improvement in cancer control worldwide. However, all these key advances have been mainly concentrated in high income nations and little is known about the capacities and needs of cancer genomics in the Latin American context. We collected available online information for all countries in central, South America and Cuba. Data reviewed included: number of cancer research institutions, number of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms, number of research groups working in cancer genetics, publications on cancer genetics for the last 10 years, educational programs on genomics and related health policies. Map 1. shows the distribution of Educational Programs, research groups and NGS platforms by country. The number below country name correspond to the regional distribution of platform technology. In average, 15 Research groups per country were registered as conducting cancer-genetics related projects. In the last 10 years, 206 publications on cancer genetics including reviews were led by (1st, 2nd or corresponding) authors affiliated to LA institutions (Figure 1) and only 56 publications in the last 2 years included cancer genomic analysis. The number of platforms is lower than other developed regions but it could be considered sufficient to cover the current needs of the regions. However, There is a need of more technical and scientific specialization in this field to increase the base of knowledge of cancer genomics and to have a positive impact in the number of publications.