Role of neighborhood context in ovarian cancer survival disparities: current research and future directions

Abstract

Social inequities in cancer survival are persistent. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-associated mortality among women, with persistent survival disparities seen across race and ethnicity, and by socioeconomic status, even after accounting for histology, stage, treatment differences, and other clinical factors. Neighborhood and environmental context can play an important role in ovarian cancer survival, and, to the extent that minority racial and ethnic groups, and populations of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be segregated into neighborhoods with lower quality social, built, and physical environment neighborhoods, contextual factors may be a critical component to ovarian cancer survival disparities. However, research on the impact of different domains of structural, environmental, and neighborhood context in ovarian cancer survival, and in disparities in ovarian cancer survival is limited. This review focuses on the following contextual domains: structural and institutional factors, healthcare access and geographic medical accessibility, environmental exposures within the physical environment, social environment, built environment, and rurality and the research to date and offers recommendations for future research studies in disparities in ovarian cancer survival. Recommendations for future research studies to address disparities in ovarian cancer survival are proposed.