Association of sociodemographic characteristics with utilization of sentinel lymph node biopsy for American Joint Committee on Cancer 8th edition T1b cutaneous melanoma

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is an important staging and prognostic tool for cutaneous melanoma (CM). However, there exists a knowledge gap regarding whether sociodemographic characteristics are associated with receipt of SLNB for T1b CMs, for which there are no definitive recommendations for SLNB per current National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. We performed a retrospective analysis of the 2012–2018 National Cancer Database, identifying patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer staging manual 8th edition stage T1b CM, and used multivariable logistic regression to analyze associations between sociodemographic characteristics and receipt of SLNB. Among 40,458 patients with T1b CM, 23,813 (58.9%) received SLNB. Median age was 62 years, and most patients were male (57%) and non-Hispanic White (95%). In multivariable analyses, patients of Hispanic (aOR 0.67, 95%CI 0.48–0.94) and other (aOR 0.78, 95%CI 0.63–0.97) race/ethnicity, and patients aged > 75 (aOR 0.33, 95%CI 0.29–0.38), were less likely to receive SLNB. Conversely, patients in the highest of seven socioeconomic status levels (aOR 1.37, 95%CI 1.13–1.65) and those treated at higher-volume facilities (aOR 1.29, 95%CI 1.14–1.46) were more likely to receive SLNB. Understanding the underlying drivers of these associations may yield important insights for the management of patients with melanoma.