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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Black men with prostate cancer, compared with their White counterparts, have a poorer prognosis that is not fully explained by other "co-morbid" illnesses, or by different screening rates or access to healthcare, researchers from the UK report.
The finding stems from a systematic review and pooled analysis of 48 published studies that reported Black-White differences in prostate cancer prognosis.
"Some of the differences in prostate cancer mortality may reflect less aggressive management amongst Black men, particularly in older cohorts," Dr. Yoav Ben-Shlomo from the University of Bristol and colleagues suggest in a report in the International Journal of Cancer.
"However, even in the presence of optimal care of equal standard for both Black and White men, there may remain differences due to underlying biological factors," they note.
In their analyses, Ben-Shlomo and colleagues found that Black men had worse overall survival that was not due to the presence of other illnesses.
Deaths due specifically to prostate cancer and recurrence of prostate cancer, as indicated by rising levels of the prostate cancer-specific blood protein PSA, showed a persistent elevated risk of around 10 percent to 25 percent for Black men, they report.
The researchers suggest that either management differences for early "organ-confined" prostate cancer and/or biological differences "may be behind Black-White differences in prostate cancer prognosis."
SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, July 15, 2008.
