TRENDS AND OUTCOMES IN CANCER SURGERY ACROSS MEXICAN PUBLIC HOSPITALS: A NATIONWIDE COHORT STUDY (2019–2022) gabriellahyman@gmail.com

 

TRENDS AND OUTCOMES IN CANCER SURGERY ACROSS MEXICAN PUBLIC HOSPITALS: A NATIONWIDE COHORT STUDY (2019–2022)

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Tarsicio Uribe-Leitz tarsiciouribe@gmail.com Boston Children's Hospital Global Health Boston United States

South Africa

Oral or Poster

Cancers requiring planned essential surgery(PES) constitute a growing burden on population health in upper-and-middle-income countries. While national cancer data exists, disaggregated information on surgical cancer care and outcomes remains limited in Mexico. This study evaluates the incidence and in-hospital outcomes of adult surgical cancer patients from 2019 to 2022.

This retrospective cohort study used nationwide public hospital discharge data. Adult patients(≥18 years) with a primary cancer diagnosis(ICD-10: C00–C97) were included. Surgical procedures and outcomes were extracted from procedure records. Demographic variables, surgical rates, length of stay (LOS), and in-hospital mortality were assessed using descriptive and analytic statistics in Python v3.13.5

Among 7202876 adult hospitalizations, 0.31%(n = 22679) involved a cancer diagnosis, of which 67.8%(n = 15368) underwent surgery. The mean age of adult surgical cancer patients was 54.7 years(SD = 34.3). Mean LOS was 6.2 days (SD = 15.6). In-hospital mortality among surgical cancer patients was 16.5%(n = 2,539; 95% CI: 15.9%–17.1%), significantly higher than the overall surgical population(5.4%; p < 0.001). The most common surgical cancers were colorectal(n = 3249; 21.1%), gastric(n = 1,994;13.0%), breast(n = 1,626; 10.6%), and lung(n = 988; 6.4%). Surgical cancer admissions remained relatively stable across the study period, despite a 10.1% decline in 2020 (the start of COVID-19 pandemic). Annual mortality rates varied minimally(SD = 0.51).

This national analysis reveals a high burden of in-hospital mortality from adult surgical cancers in Mexico, demonstrating the urgent need to expand PES, enhance perioperative care, and invest in surgical oncology across the public sector.