Black Men have a Higher Risk of Death from Prostate Cancer than White Men, Study Reports

By Cheri Cheng - 01 Aug '15 13:24PM

A new study is reporting that race can affect one's risk of death from prostate cancer.

Researchers from Prostate Cancer UK and Public Health England examined data on English participants and estimated their lifetime risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer as well as their lifetime risk of dying from the disease.

The team estimated that for white men, one in eight (13.3%) will develop prostate cancer while one in 24 (4.2%) will die from it. For black men, the researchers found that the risks were significantly higher. Roughly one in four will develop prostate cancer and one in 12 (8.7 percent) will die from it.

For Asian men, the rates were the lowest. The team estimated that one in 13 (7.9 percent) will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and one in 44 (2.3%) will die from it.

"We already knew that black men were more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than white men, however, the data we had was fast becoming out of date,"

lead author Alison Cooper from Prostate Cancer UK said. "The study also provides important absolute risk figures to help black men better understand their risk of developing prostate cancer. These figures can be used for targeted awareness-raising and to help them make an informed decision about whether or not to have a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test."

The researchers noted that race is not the only risk factor for the disease. However, knowing that it is one can encourage men to take preventive measures and get tested. The team also acknowledged that they did not find the reasons for why prostate cancer affects black men more than white and Asian men.

The data from the study came from Public Health England, Office for National Statistics and the national census. They studied a total of 25,635,649 men. Of these men, 102,252 were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 26,521 died from prostate cancer. The study did not include men of mixes races.

The study was published in the open access journal, BMC Medicine.