Prostate cancer testing rates poor in at-risk blacks (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - African-American men with a family history of prostate cancer are less likely to be screened for the deadly disease than African-American men without a family history, survey results suggest.

African-American men who are at risk for developing prostate cancer "need to be informed of the benefits and limitations of prostate cancer screening and actively involved in decision-making concerning prostate cancer screening," researchers write in the journal Cancer.

Previous epidemiological studies have suggested prostate cancer occurs at a higher rate and with greater morbidity in African-American men than in most other racial or ethnic groups.

Dr. Sally P. Weinrich, from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, and colleagues looked at the rates of prostate cancer screening in 134 "at-risk" black men having four or more relatives affected by prostate cancer compared with prostate cancer screening rates among a general population of black men who took part in the 2000 National Health Institute Survey.

According to the team, rates of prostate cancer screening were lower in the men at risk for the disease than in the general population of black men. Only 35 percent of the at-risk men underwent screening with digital rectal exam compared with 45 percent of the general population of black men.

Likewise, 45 percent of men at-risk for prostate cancer underwent screening with the PSA blood test versus 65 percent of the other group.

It's also concerning, according to investigators, that older at-risk men were significantly less likely than older subjects in the general population to undergo either PSA screening or digital rectal examination.

The decrease in prostate screening in older men at risk for the disease "is cause for concern," Weinrich's team observes, "as the average age at which African-American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer is 65."

SOURCE: Cancer February 15, 2006.