Racial disparities in prostate cancer statistics have long been evident. In particular, African American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer more often than white men, they usually are almost twice as prone to die from the disease.
But recent research also suggests that African-American men who receive advanced treatments for late-stage prostate cancer may live a minimum of as long and even longer than their Caucasian counterparts.
why like this? Scientists are in search of an evidence. “The fact that African-American men have better survival is of great research interest,” said Dr. Stephen Friedland, a urologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “If we can figure this out, we will gain important insights into the factors that contribute to late-stage prostate cancer survival. And that in turn will help encourage better treatments for all men – Regardless of race.”
Each 12 months, about 160 per 100,000 African American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. That's thrice greater than white American men, and it's greater than the variety of black men diagnosed with prostate cancer annually in Africa. It is feasible that dietary or environmental aspects—perhaps combined with genetic susceptibility—put African American men within the United States at greater risk. But African American men even have less access to health care than white Americans, and plenty of of them are diagnosed after their tumors have already begun to metastasize, or spread.
Amazing survival advantage
However, recent research suggests that survival advantages may favor African Americans who undergo advanced prostate cancer treatments in clinical trials. one the study Pooled data from nine clinical trials, enrolling 88,200 men with metastatic prostate cancer treated with the chemotherapy drug docetaxel. African-American and white men had similar survival rates—21 months and 21.2 months, respectively. But after adjusting for aspects similar to age and prostate-specific antigen levels, the researchers found that African Americans were 20 percent less prone to die during these trials than their white counterparts.
Friedland co-authored one other recent study showing that African Americans respond higher to recent drugs that concentrate on testosterone, a hormone that drives prostate cancer to grow faster. Using data collected by the Veterans Health Administration between 2013 and 2018, researchers checked out how long African-American and white men with metastatic prostate cancer lived after being treated with either of the 2 drugs. : Abiraterone acetate or enzalutamide. They had access to the records of about 3,000 men. Unpublished ResultsPresented at a medical conference in February, it showed that median survival amongst African Americans was 30 months, compared with 26 months amongst their white counterparts. “So, the bottom line is that if they develop prostate cancer, and are treated equally at a medical center with equal access, black men have similar or better outcomes,” Friedland said. There may be consequences,” Friedland said.
Friedland emphasized that additional research is required to verify the information. But within the meantime, studies have added to a growing body of evidence that's changing how scientists view racial differences in prostate cancer. Ideally, the research will reveal recent biological insights into prostate cancer, and permit doctors to develop treatments more effectively.