Influence of socioeconomic status on survival and clinical outcomes in patients with advanced gastric cancer after chemotherapy

Background: Socioeconomic inequalities are known to influence the survival of cancer patients due to differences in treatment modalities and disease extent at diagnosis. However, there are few studies regarding the influence of socioeconomic status on patient survival, especially after palliative chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study was performed on 138 advanced gastric cancer patients who received palliative chemotherapy. Demographic, socioeconomic, and cancer-related variables were analyzed according to education level. Effects of socioeconomic factors and cancer-related variables on patient survival were also evaluated. Results: In our study, higher education level (> 6 years of schooling; p = 0.01), disease control (p < 0.01), and a greater number of chemotherapeutic agents (≥ 5 drugs; p < 0.01) were associated with a significant increase in median survival. Multivariate analysis showed that a higher education level (hazard ratio (HR) 0.53; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.35-0.82; p < 0.01), disease control (HR 0.21; 95% CI 0.13-0.34), and total number of chemotherapeutic agents used (HR 0.44; 95% CI 0.26-0.73) were significantly associated with prolonged survival. Conclusions: Among socioeconomic factors, only higher education level was associated with better survival. Increase in survival was also associated with clinical outcomes, including total number of chemotherapeutic agents used and disease control after chemotherapy.