Intersection of Metastatic Cancer, Chemotherapy, and Reported Physical Abuse/Assault-Related Trauma: A Nationwide Analysis

<b>Background/Purpose:</b> We explored the complex relationship between the presence of metastatic cancer and undergoing cancer chemotherapy in adults with moderate to severe trauma and risk of reported physical abuse/assault-related trauma as defined in the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Programs Participant (ACS-TQP) dataset. We analyzed how these specific health conditions are associated with vulnerability to assault-related trauma, addressing a significant knowledge gap in existing literature.<b>Methods:</b> We utilized retrospective data from the ACS-TQP from 2017-2019 (N=27,531). The outcome was the report of physical abuse/assault-related trauma (no/yes). We focused on adults (aged ≥ 18 years) diagnosed with moderate to severe physical trauma (Injury Severity Scale: 9-75) who either had metastatic cancer (exposure) or were currently receiving chemotherapy (intervention), adjusting for predisposing factors and need for care factors based on Anderson's Model of Health Service Utilization. We used descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact test, chi-square analysis, and logistic regression using Stata.v18, with a statistical significance of P≤0.05.<b>Results:</b> We found 0.19% of 27,531 overall patients reported assault-related trauma, with 16,261 (0.16%) among those with moderate to severe trauma. Among these, a substantial majority with metastatic cancer reported assault-related trauma compared to those without metastatic cancer (84.62% vs. 15.38%; P value: 0.040). Patients receiving chemotherapy reported less frequent assault-related trauma than those not receiving it (26.92% vs. 73.08%; P value = 0.045). In the adjusted model, patients with metastatic cancer had significantly higher odds of reporting assault-related trauma than those without metastatic cancer (OR:7.847; 95% CI: 1.021-60.337; P<0.05). Chemotherapy was associated with a lower adjusted odds of assault-related trauma (OR 0.31, 95% CI: 0.08-1.14), but this did not reach statistical significance.<b>Conclusion:</b> In this large trauma cohort, metastatic cancer was associated with higher odds of assault-related trauma, while chemotherapy showed a reduced risk only in unadjusted analyses. Our findings highlight the higher vulnerability of patients with metastatic cancer and support further investigation into potential protective associations with active treatment.