Pathologically confirmed women's breast cancer: A descriptive study of Tunisian and Algerian series

Abstract Background Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent malignancy among women in Tunisia and Algeria. Clinical and pathological characteristics of this cancer among these populations are not widely reported. The aim of the study was to report clinical and pathological characteristics of women's BC in a Tunisian and Algerian series. Methods Pathologically confirmed 1089 BCs were gathered in the pathology departments of three Northern Tunisian hospitals: Tunis military, Charles Nicolle and Jendouba and in the pathology department of Alger Douera hospital between January 2015 and December 2020. Clinical and pathological findings of the two series: age, tumor size, histological type, grading according to Scarff‐Bloom Richardson grading system, lymph node status at the time of diagnosis in axillary lymphadenectomy specimens and the immunohistochemical expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER/PR), HER2 and Ki‐67, were collected from the pathological reports. Results The median age at diagnosis was 50 and 48 years in Tunisian and Algerian series, respectively (p = 0.016). The diagnosis of BC was made on surgical specimens (lumpectomy or mastectomy) in 373/491 (76%) cases of the Tunisian series and in 225/598 (37.6%) cases of the Algerian one. Median tumor size was 2.8 cm and 2.5 cm in Algerian and Tunisian series, respectively (p = 0.252). Invasive BCs not otherwise specified was observed in 440/481 (91.5%) BCs in Tunisian series and in 519/586 (88.6%) BCs in Algerian series. Axillary lymph node positive tumors were observed in 64.6% and 58.8% of Tunisian and Algerian women, respectively (p = 0.926). BCs were ER positive in 311/385 (80.8%) and 486/571 (85.1%) cases and HER2 positive in 86/283 (30.4%) and 60/385 (15.6%) cases of Tunisian and Algerian series, respectively. Conclusions In Tunisia and Algeria, BC has poor prognostic factors with large tumor sizes and high rates of lymph nodes involvement at diagnosis

A regionally based precision medicine implementation initiative in North Africa:The PerMediNA consortium

International audiencePrecision Medicine is being increasingly used in the developed world to improve health care. While several Precision Medicine (PM) initiatives have been launched worldwide, their implementations have proven to be more challenging particularly in low- and middle-income countries. To address this issue, the “Personalized Medicine in North Africa” initiative (PerMediNA) was launched in three North African countries namely Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. PerMediNA is coordinated by Institut Pasteur de Tunis together with the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, with the support of Institut Pasteur in France. The project is carried out along with Institut Pasteur d’Algérie and Institut Pasteur du Maroc in collaboration with national and international leading institutions in the field of PM including Institut Gustave Roussy in Paris. PerMediNA aims to assess the readiness level of PM implementation in North Africa, to strengthen PM infrastructure, to provide workforce training, to generate genomic data on North African populations, to implement cost effective, affordable and sustainable genetic testing for cancer patients and to inform policy makers on how to translate research knowledge into health products and services. Gender equity and involvement of young scientists in this implementation process are other key goals of the PerMediNA project.In this paper, we are describing PerMediNA as the first PM implementation initiative in North Africa. Such initiatives contribute significantly in shortening existing health disparities and inequities between developed and developing countries and accelerate access to innovative treatments for global health