ASO Author Reflections: Socioeconomic Disparities in Use of Surgery for Gastrointestinal Cancers Are Large and Impactful in Poor-Prognosis Cancers

Excerpt

We live in a time of increasing socioeconomic status (SES)-based disparities in cancer mortality in the US.1 It has been conservatively estimated that 22% of cancer deaths would not occur if all Americans had the cancer death rates of college-educated Americans.2 Many previous studies have demonstrated that socioeconomic deprivation is qualitatively a risk factor for omission of surgery in early-stage gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. As surgery is the mainstay of treatment for such patients, it seems logical that SES-based disparities in use of surgery are likely major contributors to SES-based survival disparities in GI cancers. No previous studies have quantified the absolute size of SES-based disparities in use of surgery across all major GI cancers using a validated, composite SES variable measured at the neighborhood level. Furthermore, the proportion of SES-based survival disparities that are mediated by disparities in use of surgery is unknown. This study sought to address these knowledge gaps. …