Analysis of trends in race and gender disparities in incidence-based mortality in patients diagnosed with soft tissue sarcomas from 2000 to 2021.

e23553Background: The incidence of soft tissue sarcomas has been observed to be higher in males compared to females and more in African Americans compared to Caucasians. Variability of incidence-based mortality in low grade and high-grade soft tissue sarcomas with respect to race and gender for the period 2000 to 2016 has been previously reported. This study analyzes the rates of incidence-based mortality from the years 2000 to 2021 in groups divided by grades, gender and race. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Database was queried to conduct a nation-wide analysis for the years 2000 to 2021. Incidence-based mortality for all stages of low grade and high-grade soft tissue sarcomas was queried and the results were grouped by race (Caucasian/White vs. African American/Black) and gender. All stages and ages were included in the analysis and rates from 2000 to 2021 were analyzed. Results: Incidence-based mortality rates (per 1000, 000) for low grade and high-grade soft tissue sarcomas for both races and genders are shown in the table below. The incidence-based mortality rates for Caucasian males and African American females was higher in the high grade group and had a roughly 2:1 gender ratio in the low grade group. Rates were not analyzed for American Indian and Asian/Pacific Islanders due to small sample size. As expected, the mortality rates of high-grade soft tissue sarcomas were significantly higher compared to low grade tumors. A higher rate of mortality is noted in Caucasian males compared to African Americans males despite past observations of higher incidence in African Americans. This data represents a summation of the rates for the past two decades. Conclusions: This study highlights the higher rate of incidence-based mortality in Caucasian males with high grade sarcoma compared to African American males with similar grade in the past two decades despite a lower reported incidence in Caucasians. The opposite trend for mortality is noted in African-American females. This study implies that Caucasian males and African-American females with high soft tissue sarcomas likely have worse outcomes. This disparity may be worth further investigation in terms of differences in the tumor biology and associated risk factors.