The implementation of a collaborative program between North American and Mexican medical institutions to achieve sustainable, high-quality care at a public hospital in the United States–Mexico border region for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and improve outcomes has resulted in significant improvements in 5-year overall survival for these patients. According to the study’s findings, the 5-year overall survival rates for children with standard-risk and high-risk ALL improved from 52% to 82% and from 46% to 76%, respectively. The study by Aristizabal et al were presented during the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 1502).

Improvements in treatment over the past 5 decades for children with ALL have resulted in cure rates reaching nearly 90% in high-income countries. However, in low-resource countries, cure rates for childhood ALL plummet to between 40% and 70% because of a multitude of factors, including health-care systems in these settings that are ill-equipped to manage cancer care for these patients.

In this study, Paula Aristizabal, MD, MAS, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Rady Children’s Hospital–San Diego and Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at UC San Diego Health, and colleagues investigated how international collaborative strategies may improve outcomes for children with leukemia in low- and middle-income countries, especially those that share a border with high-income countries.

Study Methodology

In 2013, in a partnership between North American and Mexican institutions, the researchers used a health systems strengthening model developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) called Framework for Action—which included domains in care delivery services, workforce, information systems, access to essential medicines, financing, and leadership and governance—to implement a sustainable program with the goal of improving ALL outcomes at Hospital General in Tijuana, Mexico.

The researchers evaluated program sustainability indicators and prospectively assessed clinical features, risk classification, and survival outcomes in 109 children with ALL at the hospital from 2008 to 2012 (before implementation of the program) and from 2013 to 2017 (after implementation).

Key Results

The researchers’ approach led to a fully staffed leukemia service at the hospital with sustainable training programs; evidence-based, data-driven projects to improve clinical outcomes; and funding for medications, supplies, and personnel through local partnerships.

They found that the preimplementation and postimplementation 5-year overall survival for children with standard-risk and high-risk ALL improved from 52% to 82% and from 46% to 76%, respectively. All sustainability indicators significantly improved between 2013 and 2017.

“By using a health systems strengthening approach, we improved leukemia care and survival in a public Mexican hospital in the U.S.-Mexico border region. The demonstrated increase in overall survival across a decade after the implementation of our program validates the use of the health systems strengthening models, as they are not only efficacious in improving clinical outcomes, but also serve as [a] financially and organizationally means of building sustainable capacity. Our model serves as an example for future international partnerships aimed at sustainably improving cancer outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Future research should evaluate best practices in establishing global health collaborations with particular attention paid toward the individual circumstances that impact health-care delivery locally in each unique community,” concluded the study authors.  

Clinical Significance

In an ASCO press briefing detailing the findings of this study, Dr. Aristizabal said that using a combination of twinning—the partnering of a center of excellence in a high-income country with a center in a low- and middle-income country to share knowledge, technology, and organizational skills—and the WHO Framework for Action model that is focused on sustainability was effective in reducing leukemia survival disparities. “Sustained improvements in cancer outcomes in low- and middle-income countries are feasible with innovative cross-border programs, particularly in borders that are shared between a high-income country and a low-income country, ” said Dr. Aristizabal.

“As I’ve heard Princess Dina Mired of Jordan [President-Elect of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)] say many times, ‘Your zip code should not determine if you survive cancer,’” said moderator of the press briefing, Julie R. Gralow, MD, FACP, FASCO, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of ASCO, commenting on Dr. Aristizabal’s findings. “And this is an example of children being so close in proximity and not having the same advantages. Your program focused on capacity building primarily, but in prior discussions, you’ve also told us that because of this partnership that was going on, you were able to have drugs supplied by the Mexican Ministry of Health, which was not standard across the country. So that partnership also then involved the Mexican government in getting access to the drug as well, which I think is an important component.”

“It takes lots of partners—not just a village, but lots of partners—to achieve these outcomes,” concluded Dr. Gralow.

Disclosure: Funding for this study was provided by Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, Patronato Foundation. For full disclosures of the study authors, visit coi.asco.org.