Importance Disparities in survival exist between non-Hispanic Black (hereafter, Black) and non-Hispanic White (hereafter, White) patients with uterine cancer. Objective To investigate factors associated with racial disparities in survival between Black and White patients with uterine cancer. Design, Setting, and Patients This cohort study used data from the National Cancer Database on 274 838 Black and White patients who received a diagnosis of uterine cancer from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2017, with follow-up through December 2020. Statistical analysis was performed in July 2022. Main Outcomes and Measures Overall survival by self-reported race and evaluation of explanatory study factors associated with hazard ratio (HR) reduction for Black vs White patients. A propensity scoring approach was applied sequentially to balance racial differences in demographic characteristics, comorbidity score, neighborhood income, insurance status, histologic subtype, disease stage, and treatment. Results The study included 32 230 Black female patients (mean [SD] age at diagnosis, 63.8 [10.0] years) and 242 608 White female patients (mean [SD] age at diagnosis, 63.5 [10.5] years) and had a median follow-up of 74.0 months (range, 43.5-113.8 months). Black patients were more likely than White patients to have low income (44.1% vs 14.0%), be uninsured (5.7% vs 2.6%), present with nonendometrioid histologic characteristics (46.1% vs 21.6%), have an advanced disease stage (34.1% vs 19.8%), receive first-line chemotherapy (33.8% vs 18.2%), and have worse 5-year survival (58.6% vs 78.5%). Among patients who received a diagnosis at younger than 65 years of age, the HR for death for Black vs White patients was 2.43 (95% CI, 2.34-2.52) in a baseline demographic-adjusted model and 1.29 (95% CI, 1.23-1.35) after balancing other factors. Comorbidity score, neighborhood income, insurance status, histologic subtype, disease stage, treatment, and unexplained factors accounted for 0.8%, 7.2%, 11.5%, 53.1%, 5.8%, 1.2%, and 20.4%, respectively, of the excess relative risk (ERR) among the younger Black vs White patients. Among patients 65 years or older, the HR for death for Black vs White patients was 1.87 (95% CI, 1.81-1.93) in the baseline model and 1.14 (95% CI, 1.09-1.19) after balancing other factors. Comorbidity score, neighborhood income, insurance status, histologic subtype, disease stage, treatment, and unexplained factors accounted for 3.0%, 7.5%, 0.0%, 56.2%, 10.6%, 6.9%, and 15.8%, respectively, of the ERR among Black vs White patients aged 65 years or older. Conclusions and Relevance This study suggests that histologic subtype was the dominant factor associated with racial survival disparity among patients with uterine cancer, while insurance status represented the main modifiable factor for women younger than 65 years. Additional studies of interactions between biology and social determinants of health are merited.
5587 Background: In a preliminary data analysis to identify prognostic molecular biomarkers in uterine carcinosarcoma (UCS), we found that alterations in KMT2C, a gene involved in the chromatin remodeling pathway, correlated with improved survival. We sought to explore relevant biomarkers of KMT2C-mutated (KMT2C-mut) tumors compared to wildtype (KMT2C-wt) tumors. Methods: Tumor samples were analyzed using next generation sequencing (NGS) of the DNA (NextSeq, 592 genes or NovaSeq, whole exome sequencing) and RNA (NovaSeq, whole transcriptome sequencing) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) (Caris Life Sciences, Phoenix, AZ).PD-L1 IHC used SP-142 (cut-off >1%). Microsatelite instability (MSI) was tested by FA, IHC and NGS. TMB was measured by totaling somatic mutations per tumor (high > 10 mutations per MB). Immune cell fraction was calculated by QuantiSeq. Overall survival (OS) information was obtained from insurance claims data and Kaplan-Meier estimates were calculated for molecularly defined patient cohorts. Statistical significance was determined using chi-square and Wilcoxon rank sum test and p values adjusted for multiple comparisons (q) to be <0.05. Results: Molecular analysis was performed on 1,144 UCS tumors. 7.7% were found to be KMT2C-mut. Patients with pathogenic alterations in KMT2C had longer median OS than patients without (OS not yet reached vs 19.0 months HR(95% CI): 0.37(0.19-0.72) p< 0.01). The most common mutations in KMT2C-mut tumors are shown in Table and resulted in more frequent dysregulation in the following pathways compared to KMT2C-wt tumors: chromatin remodeling (100% vs 28%; q<0.01), WNT (39% vs 12%; q=0.01), base/nucleotide excision repair (29% vs 5%; q<0.01), homologous recombination (26% vs 6%; q=0.02), DNA damage sensors (23% vs 4%; q=0.02) and Fanconi anemia (13% vs 1%; q=0.04). KMT2C-mut tumors were more frequently MSI-H (32% vs 6%; q<0.01) and TMB-H (42% vs 5%; q<0.01). Among MSS tumors, KMT2C-mut tumors had increased mutations in JAK1 and POLE (q<0.01) and higher frequency of TMB-H (24% vs 1%; q<0.01) than KMT2C-wt tumors. Additionally, MSS patients with KMT2C-mut had longer OS than patients with KMT2C-wt tumors (OS not yet reached vs 18.9 months; HR(95% CI): 0.33(0.15-0.75) p< 0.01). Conclusions: Mutations in KMT2C correlate with improved OS in UCS. KMT2C-mut tumors have distinct molecular profiles from wild type tumors. They exhibit greater immunogenicity, including more frequent MSI-H and TMB-H. This suggests a potential role for Immune-oncology (IO) therapy. Further study of the impact of IO therapies in the cohort is warranted as this may contribute to the improved survival of these patients.[Table: see text]
We use cyclic spectroscopy to perform high frequency-resolution analyses of multi-hour baseband Arecibo observations of the millisecond pulsar PSR B1937+21. This technique allows for the examination of scintillation features in far greater detail than is otherwise possible under most pulsar timing array observing setups. We measure scintillation bandwidths and timescales in each of eight subbands across a 200 MHz observing band in each observation. Through these measurements we obtain intra-epoch estimates of the frequency scalings for scintillation bandwidth and timescale.Thanks to our high frequency resolution and the narrow scintles of this pulsar, we resolve scintillation arcs in the secondary spectra due to the increased Nyquist limit, which would not have been resolved at the same observing frequency with a traditional filterbank spectrum using NANOGrav's current time and frequency resolutions, and the frequency-dependent evolution of scintillation arc features within individual observations. We observe the dimming of prominent arc features at higher frequencies, possibly due to a combination of decreasing flux density and the frequency dependence of the plasma refractive index of the interstellar medium. We also find agreement with arc curvature frequency dependence predicted by Stinebring et al. (2001) in some epochs. Thanks to the frequency resolution improvement provided by cyclic spectroscopy, these results show strong promise for future such analyses with millisecond pulsars, particularly for pulsar timing arrays, where such techniques can allow for detailed studies of the interstellar medium in highly scattered pulsars without sacrificing the timing resolution that is crucial to their gravitational wave detection efforts.
