The Geographic Context of Racial Disparities in Aggressive Endometrial Cancer Subtypes: Integrating Social and Environmental Aspects to Discern Biological Outcomes

Abstract

The number of Endometrial Carcinoma (EC) diagnoses is projected to increase substantially in coming decades. Although most ECs have a favorable prognosis, the aggressive, non-endometrioid subtypes are disproportionately concentrated in Black women and spread rapidly, making treatment difficult and resulting in poor outcomes. Therefore, this study offers an exploratory spatial epidemiological investigation of EC patients within a U.S.-based health system’s institutional cancer registry (n = 1748) to search for and study geographic patterns. Clinical, demographic, and geographic characteristics were compared by histotype using chi-square tests for categorical and t-tests for continuous variables. Multivariable logistic regression evaluated the impact of risks on these histotypes. Cox proportional hazard models measured risks in overall and cancer-specific death. Cluster detection indicated that patients with the EC non-endometrioid histotypes exhibit geographic clustering in their home address, such that congregate buildings can be identified for targeted outreach. Furthermore, living in a high social vulnerability area was independently associated with non-endometrioid histotypes, as continuous and categorical variables. This study provides a methodological framework for early, geographically targeted intervention; social vulnerability associations require further investigation. We have begun to fill the knowledge gap of geography in gynecologic cancers, and geographic clustering of aggressive tumors may enable targeted intervention to improve prognoses.

Spatial Syndromic Surveillance and COVID-19 in the U.S.: Local Cluster Mapping for Pandemic Preparedness

“…Finally, from this philosophical and ethical lens, how we can take what we have learned from such a geographically and temporally granular disease surveillance system and apply it to other diseases, both infectious and chronic. We are having these discussions now and have already demonstrated potential for gynecological cancer [ 42 ]. Moving to a practical perspective, our experience suggests that any hospital or health system can benefit from integrating mapping of relevant dimensions of their data to improve operational efficiency and ultimately improve care.…”