Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Publication Date

6-1-2024

Journal

Annals of Surgical Oncology

Abstract

Background: Although social vulnerability has been associated with worse postoperative and oncologic outcomes in other cancer types, these effects have not been characterized in patients with soft tissue sarcoma. This study evaluated the association of social vulnerability and oncologic outcomes.

Methods: The authors conducted a single-institution cohort study of adult patients with primary and locally recurrent extremity or truncal soft tissue sarcoma undergoing resection between January 2016 and December 2021. The social vulnerability index (SVI) was measured on a low (SVI 1-39%, least vulnerable) to high (60-100%, most vulnerable) SVI scale. The association of SVI with overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression.

Results: The study identified 577 patients. The median SVI was 44 (interquartile range [IQR], 19-67), with 195 patients categorized as high SVI and 265 patients as low SVI. The median age, tumor size, histologic subtype, grade, comorbidities, stage, follow-up time, and perioperative chemotherapy and radiation utilization were similar between the high and low SVI cohorts. The patients with high SVI had worse OS (p = 0.07) and RFS (p = 0.016) than the patients with low SVI. High SVI was independently associated with shorter RFS in the multivariate analysis (hazard ratio, 1.64; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-2.54) but not with OS (HR, 1.47; 95% CI 0.84-2.56).

Conclusion: High community-level social vulnerability appears to be independently associated with worse RFS for patients undergoing resection of extremity and truncal soft tissue sarcoma. The effect of patient and community-level social risk factors should be considered in the treatment of patients with extremity sarcoma.

Keywords

Humans, Female, Male, Sarcoma, Middle Aged, Extremities, Survival Rate, Neoplasm Recurrence, Local, Aged, Follow-Up Studies, Prognosis, Adult, Vulnerable Populations, Torso, Retrospective Studies, Risk Factors, Soft Tissue Neoplasms, Social determinants of health, Social vulnerability, Soft-tissue sarcoma

DOI

10.1245/s10434-024-15074-6

PMID

38396039

PMCID

PMC12105658

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

5-26-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Published Open-Access

yes

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