UPDATE - Issue 36 - Spring 2009
Are black men disadvantaged?
A major study called PROCESS, carried out mainly in Bristol and London NHS Trusts recently published their answers to this question in the British Journal of Cancer.
Black men in England have three times the age-adjusted incidence of diagnosed prostate cancer as compared with their white counterparts. The study found that black men were diagnosed an average of 5.1 years younger as compared with white men. Men of both races were comparable in their knowledge of prostate cancer, in the delays reported before presentation, and in their experience of co-morbidity and symptoms. Prostate Specific Antigen levels were comparable at diagnosis, although black men had higher levels when compared with same-age white men. The study concluded that there was no evidence of black men having poorer access to diagnostic services. Differences in the run-up to diagnosis are modest and seem insufficient to explain the higher rate of prostate cancer diagnosis in black men.