Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequently diagnosed and fourth most deadly cancer in women worldwide despite being mostly preventable and potentially curable when diagnosed early (1). Approximately 14,000 new cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed and 4,300 deaths from the disease occurred in the US in 2023 (2). Although improvements in the prevention, detection, and treatment of cervical cancer have been made over time, health disparities that may disproportionately affect underserved populations still persist.
There is limited information on the impact of health disparities on the observed variation of cervical cancer disease burden in the US. Value Analytics Labs collaborated with the Seagen HEOR team (now with Pfizer) to design and conduct a real-world evidence study to analyze the geographical distribution of cervical cancer burden using a comprehensive claims database. We sought to quantify the associations of select demographic and socioeconomic factors with higher disease burden to inform targeted interventions that can improve outcomes of people at risk of cervical cancer (3).
Our findings were based on data that were incorporated into the Cervical Cancer Geo-Analyzer, a publicly available online, interactive tool that allows users to visualize cervical cancer and recurrent/metastatic cervical cancer disease burden in the US (4). The need to better understand gaps in recurrent and metastatic cervical cancer care partially inspired the development of the original tool, which covered commercially insured patients from 2015 through 2020 (5). The updated version of the tool now includes data on disease burden from patients covered by private insurance or Medicaid from 2017 through 2022 and can overlay brachytherapy sites at which guideline-conforming care can be provided for early-stage disease. The latest data supporting the tool were presented as a special interest oral presentation at the Society for Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2024 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer in San Diego.
References
- Bray F, Laversanne M, Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2022: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians. 2024 May;74(3):229-63.
- Cancer Stat Facts: Cervical Cancer: National Cancer Institute: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER*Explorer); Available from: https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/cervix.html
- Castellano T, ElHabr AK, Washington C, Ting J, Zhang YJ, Musa F, et al. Health disparities in cervical cancer: Estimating geographic variations of disease burden and association with key socioeconomic and demographic factors in the US. PLoS ONE. 2024;19(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307282
- Castellano T, Washington C, Moore KN, Yildiz Y, Surinach A, Ting J, Chhatwal J, et al. Cervical cancer geographical burden analyzer: An interactive, open-access tool for understanding geographical disease burden in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2022;40:5523-5523.
- Sonawane K, Castellano T, Washington C, Ayer T, Surinach A, Kirshner C, Ting J, et al. Factors associated with receipt of second-line recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer treatment in the United States: A retrospective administrative claims analysis. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2022;40:5532- 5532.
