Mayo Clinic, Médica Sur Sign Agreement to Improve Cancer Care

Mayo Clinic and Médica Sur strengthened their years-long collaboration with a new agreement to improve oncology attention in Mexico. The expanded collaboration will initially focus on improving breast cancer care, including diagnosis and treatment, and will later expand to include treatment for other cancers and medical specialties.

This collaboration will enable doctors at Médica Sur to refer their most complex and difficult cases to Mayo Clinic. “For patients, it means being able to get an even higher level of world-class care, close to home, right here in Mexico,” said Anton Decker, President, Mayo Clinic International, during the signing of the agreement.

Decker explained that this partnership will allow both institutions to diagnose and treat patients faster and better using cutting-edge technology and the same human touch patients have come to expect from Mayo Clinic and Médica Sur. The collaboration between these two institutions began in 2013 and to date, it is one of the two Mayo Clinic holds in Latin America.

Mayo Clinic International aims to make the institution’s services global but it also aims to take patients from all over the world to its hospitals. “We need to respond to the needs of the patient where they are. To effectively do this, we need to partner with institutions that share our same values and discipline, such is the case of Médica Sur. From this collaboration in breast cancer, we will both learn and replicate elsewhere,” Decker said

Breast cancer was selected after both institutions determined that addressing this medical specialty would benefit most patients. “We based this decision on what epidemiological trends are estimated to be beyond 2050. Mortality rates are expected to be dominated by oncology, which is why we wanted to prepare ahead of this scenario and be sure we will be ready to face it when it arrives,” said Octavio González Chon, Medical Director, Médica Sur.

Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer globally, being the leading cause of death worldwide, and the third in Mexico. In 2020, about 10 million people died from cancer globally. Between Jan. and Aug. 2020, 683,823 people died from cancer in Mexico. In the country, over 50 percent of deaths caused by cancer correspond to female patients. The most common cancers suffered by women are breast and uterus cancers.