High Community-Level Social Vulnerability is Associated with Worse Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS) After Resection of...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Socioeconomic Factors in Health
• Surgical Outcomes

Background:

• Social vulnerability is linked to adverse outcomes in various cancers.
• Its impact on soft tissue sarcoma (STS) patients remains understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between social vulnerability and oncologic outcomes in patients with extremity and truncal soft tissue sarcoma.

Main Methods:

• A single-institution cohort study analyzed 577 adult patients with primary or recurrent STS.
• Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) was used to categorize patients (low vs. high vulnerability).
• Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression assessed the impact of SVI on overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS).

Main Results:

• Patients with high SVI showed trends toward worse OS (p=0.07) and significantly worse RFS (p=0.016).
• High SVI was independently associated with shorter RFS (HR 1.64, 95% CI 1.06-2.54) but not OS (HR 1.47, 95% CI 0.84-2.56).
• Key demographic and clinical factors were similar between low and high SVI groups.

Conclusions:

• Community-level social vulnerability is independently associated with worse recurrence-free survival in patients undergoing STS resection.
• Patient and community social risk factors should be considered in the management of extremity sarcoma.