Black men today are half as prone to die from prostate cancer as they were a couple of many years ago. This is sweet news. Still, racial disparities exist on the subject of early detection, treatment, and death.
Talk to your doctor about your risk. Experts advise black men to debate this and plan for future screenings by age 45.
Prostate cancer accounts for about 37 percent of all cancers in black men. About 1 in 6 might be diagnosed with the disease in some unspecified time in the future in life. It is more common amongst black men than other racial/ethnic groups.
The disease can also be fatal for black men. Men of other races are twice as prone to die from prostate cancer. This is the most important racial disparity in deaths from any cancer within the United States.
When it involves prostate cancer, black men are also more likely than other races to:
- Diagnose at an early age.
- Have fast-growing, or high-grade, tumor cells.
- Prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body (called advanced or metastatic cancer)
We understand prostate cancer in black men higher than ever, but more research is required. Ethnic minorities are sometimes excluded from medical research for quite a lot of reasons. But there may be a growing push to incorporate more black men in clinical trials.
Health disparities are largely blamed on many years of racial prejudice and discrimination. You may hear this called systemic or structural racism. It can affect every area of life, including access to healthy food, jobs, housing, and medical care.
But experts are still trying to search out answers to why prostate cancer is more common and deadly in black men. Some theories include:
Barriers to care. Black men often have less access to medical health insurance and high-quality medical care. Access to medical services, education, employment, and income all affect how healthy you’re. If you’re a black man with prostate cancer, racial and socioeconomic barriers may contribute to:
- Delay in treatment
- Low rates of prostate cancer screening
- Poor health education about treatment options
- Low quality care
- Less high-benefit treatments, comparable to surgery
Bad advice. From 2012 to 2018, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) stated that they consider the PSA test mustn’t be used for routine prostate cancer screening. This is a blood test that is often used to detect early signs of prostate cancer. They have since modified their guidance, saying that men should make this decision with their doctors based on their personal risk of prostate cancer. But some researchers consider that the advice against PSA screening is more likely for black men than for other races.
Medical mistrust. Black people often have less trust within the health care system. There are cultural and historical reasons for this.
Fewer black doctors. People may feel more comfortable with a physician who shares their ethnicity. While 13% of the population is black, only 5% of the workforce includes black doctors. And only 2% of urologists are black. Urologists are specialists who often diagnose and treat prostate cancer.
Other health problems Your lifestyle, comparable to what you eat and whether you exercise or smoke, along along with your genes, affect your health. And the continuing stress of systemic racism could make you sick.
Certain medical conditions are more common in black men. Some that may negatively affect the consequence of prostate cancer include:
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Overweight or obesity
Genetic variations. Genes are passed down through families. And there may be some evidence that black men may inherit an increased risk of more aggressive varieties of cancer or certain genetic mutations, or mutations.
There is ongoing debate about how much genetics influence prostate cancer in black men. We may learn more in the long run as genetic testing becomes more widely available.
Early detection is vital in prostate cancer. Almost 100% of men of any race might be alive 5 years after their diagnosis when prostate cancer is detected early. But when it spreads to other parts of the body, it is rather difficult to treat.
The 5-year survival rate for men of all races drops to 30% after they are diagnosed with advanced, or metastatic, prostate cancer.
Experts consider that prostate cancer screening could save more lives for black men than for those at low risk. This is because there may be a robust correlation between midlife PSA levels and later aggressive prostate cancer in black men.
American Cancer Society guidelines recommend the next for high-risk groups:
Discuss prostate cancer screening at age 45. If you’re a black man or your father or brother was diagnosed with prostate cancer before age 65.
Discuss prostate cancer screening at age 40. If you’ve got a couple of first-degree member of the family (parent, sibling, or child) who had prostate cancer before age 65 otherwise you tested positive for a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation.
Look at the professionals and cons of energetic surveillance. This is when your doctor monitors your prostate cancer but doesn’t immediately treat you. It can also be called watchful waiting. This is a standard approach for low-risk tumors, but it surely may not work as well for black men.
Prostate cancer could also be more prone to grow and spread in black men during energetic surveillance. But should you select this selection, your doctor will likely:
- Check your PSA level every 6 months.
- Have a digital rectal exam no less than yearly.
- Go to treatment options when your tests change.
Scientists don't know if certain prostate cancer treatments work higher for men of various races. But there may be evidence that black men just do as well or higher than men of other races when the identical sort of care is out there.
Black men with prostate cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body (called nonmetastatic) live just so long as white men when each groups receive the identical sort of treatment. Radiation therapy may match higher for black men with early prostate cancer. And hormone-based therapy could also be simpler for black men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). This is a sort of aggressive prostate cancer that not responds well to testosterone-lowering therapy.
Make sure your doctor covers all of your treatment options. Black men with aggressive prostate cancer may profit from surgery or radiation therapy. But they’re less likely than other races to get it. If your doctor doesn't recommend this treatment, ask them why.
You can even get a second opinion from one other doctor.
To reduce your possibilities of prostate cancer, it’s best to:
- Exercise no less than 150 minutes every week to get your heart rate up.
- Eat loads of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
- Maintain a healthy body mass index (BMI).
- Limit beef, alcohol and highly processed foods.
If you smoke, quit. Current smokers are more likely than non-smokers to develop an aggressive tumor or cancer that returns after treatment. Smoking also increases the possibility of dying from prostate cancer.
you too:
- Learn all you’ll be able to about your treatment options.
- Find out what tests and coverings your insurance covers.
- Ask your doctor about genetic testing.
- Enroll in a prostate cancer clinical trial.
If you're a black man diagnosed with prostate cancer, you’ll be able to share your experience with the researchers leading the RESPOND study. These experts hope to grasp what's behind the disparity in prostate cancer amongst black men.
The study was supported by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, in addition to the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Learn more at respondstudy.org.