Association of social vulnerability on survival, treatment, and presentation in oral cavity cancer

OBJECTIVE: This study utilized a population database to investigate how social environments are associated with outcomes including stage at diagnosis, multimodal treatment, and disease-specific survival for oral cavity squamous cell carcinomas. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of adults with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma between 2007 and 2016 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, End Results (SEER) registry was performed. The CDC's social vulnerability index (SVI) was used to characterize social vulnerability at the county level. Predictors of disease-specific survival, stage at diagnosis, and use of multimodal therapy were identified using Cox regression and logistic regression. RESULTS: Our analysis included 17 043 patients. On adjusted models, patients in the highest SVI quartile (most social vulnerability) exhibited worse disease-specific survival compared to the lowest quartile (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.12-1.37, p < 0.001), and were more likely to be diagnosed at later stages (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.11-1.38, p < 0.001) and less likely to receive multimodal therapy (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.77-0.99, p = 0.037). CONCLUSION: High social vulnerability was associated with worse disease-specific survival and disease presentation in oral cavity cancer patients.