Abstract C023: Variations in clinical presentation and outcomes of rare ovarian cancers by race and nativity
Authors: Chery Maurice J. , Sanchez-Covarrubias Alex P. , George Sophia H.L. , Schlumbrecht Matthew P. 
Published: December 2023

Introduction: Disparities in the prevalence of disease, medical access, and survival rates have been well documented in women with epithelial ovarian cancer.  Black women tend to develop more aggressive tumors and have worse overall survival. Aside from race, however, nativity (region of birth) has been associated with variations in treatment outcomes. There is a paucity of research specifically about rare ovarian cancer subtypes, including germ cell (GC) and stromal cell (SC) tumors. Our study aims to provide a comparative analysis of clinical presentation and outcomes among women of Caribbean and US origin with GC and SC tumors, stratified by race. Methods: Analyses were conducted using the Florida Cancer Data Service (FCDS), the statewide cancer registry. Women who were diagnosed with GC and SC ovarian cancer subtypes from 1987 to 2017 were identified, and categorized as either US-born (USB) White, USB Black, Caribbean-born (CB)White, or CB Black.  Abstracted data included patient-level demographic data, treatment histories, and all-cause overall survival. Statistical analyses were performed using chi-square, ANOVA, log-rank test, and Kaplan-Meier method, with the threshold for statistical significance set at p &lt; 0.05. Results: 691 women with GC and SC were identified.  There was a significant difference in mean age at diagnosis by race and nativity. USB Black women were diagnosed at the youngest mean age (34.4 yr, SD 20.62), followed by USB White (38.6 yr, SD 20.97), CB Black (43.9 yr, SD 20.79), and CB White (45.9 yr, SD 18.66)(p=0.002). CB White patients had the highest utilization of Medicaid (23.5%), while CB Black had the highest proportion of uninsured patients (22.2%)(p&lt;0.001). There were no differences in stage, tumor characteristics (grade, histology, lymph vascular invasion) or treatments (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation) administered among the groups.  CB Black women had a much lower prevalence of smoking (2.8%) compared to the other subgroups (CB White 23.5%5; USB White 28.1%; USB Black 16.9%, p=0.003). There were no significant differences in median OS by race and nativity (USB White 184 months; USB Black USB 244 months; CB White 270 months; CB Black CB 204 months; log-rank p=0.8). Conclusion: Despite a younger age of diagnosis in USB versus CB women, and Black women vs White women, there were no differences in survival outcomes in women with GC and SC ovarian cancers, even when considering variations in insurance coverage and smoking histories. While the long survival is likely due to the natural history of these tumors, the variation in age at diagnosis suggests variable susceptibility to tumor initiation by race and place of birth.

Citation Format: Maurice J. Chery, Alex P. Sanchez-Covarrubias, Sophia H.L. George, Matthew P. Schlumbrecht. Variations in clinical presentation and outcomes of rare ovarian cancers by race and nativity [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr C023.