Neighborhood poverty linked to advanced-stage cervical cancer diagnosis
A retrospective cohort study of 352 patients diagnosed with cervical cancer between 2015 and 2023 at a single cancer network examined how area-level social and structural determinants relate to stage at diagnosis. The study reported that higher area-level poverty was independently associated with advanced-stage diagnosis, with patients in the highest-poverty neighborhoods having nearly threefold higher odds compared to those in the lowest-poverty areas; higher household composition and disability vulnerability was also independently associated with advanced-stage disease. The authors state these findings underscore the importance of incorporating area-level context into strategies to reduce cervical cancer disparities.