Sexual orientation and gender identity data reveals real-world cancer disparities among sexual and gender minorities at an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.

BACKGROUND

Lack of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) collection hinders the ability to identify cancer disparities, create opportunities for improvement, and reveal the burden of cancer among sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. Our institution is one of the first NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers to collect SOGI as standard-of-care demographics.

METHODS

This analysis includes 118 320 patients who came to the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute ("Moffitt") between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2023 and completed the institutional standard-of-care electronic patient questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were conducted to assessed overall and age-specific differences between SGM and non-SGM patients (ie, cisgender-heterosexual) for demographics, SOGI disclosure, clinical covariates, and psychosocial and quality-of-life needs.

RESULTS

Compared with non-SGM patients, SGM patients were statistically significant younger, single, self-identified as racial and ethnic minorities, reported higher psychosocial and quality-of-life needs, and had higher-than-expected rates for several specific cancer sites.

CONCLUSIONS

Revealing these real-world cancer disparities among SGM patients based on only 7 years of SOGI data collection highlights the fundamental importance of systematic collection of this demographic information for identifying and eventually mitigating health disparities.