The association between race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and stage of diagnosis among sarcoma patients between 2004-2022 in the United States

Abstract

Individuals of racial/ethnic minorities and lower socioeconomic status are vulnerable to advanced stage sarcoma diagnosis which can impact their survival of the disease. However, little work has been done to determine whether the association of these sociodemographic factors and advanced stage sarcoma diagnosis vary by the major sarcoma types of soft tissue and bone as well as age of diagnosis. The 2000-2022 Incidence SEER Research Limited-Field Data was used for this study. The primary exposures were race/ethnicity and county level median household income. The primary outcome was stage of sarcoma diagnosis. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to present odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The ORs were adjusted for age, sex, year, and sarcoma type. Hispanic, NH Black, NH A/PI, and NH AI/AN soft tissue and bone sarcoma patients had 1.12 to 1.33-fold higher risk of advanced stage sarcoma compared with NH White patients. Compared with bone sarcoma patients, soft tissue sarcoma patients with low and middle median household income had 1.06-fold higher odds of advanced stage sarcoma than those in high median household income. There were very few significant associations between race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and advanced stage sarcoma diagnosis when stratified by age. These findings emphasize the importance of community resources to improve overall health outcomes such as detection, treatment, and survival.