News

African-American men face a higher risk of developing prostate cancer in their lifetime, reveals research but scientists are at a loss to explain why.

"Many prostate cancer research programmes include too few African-Americans, yet African-American men have such a tremendously high risk of the disease, we felt it important to reach out to this community," says Kathleen Cooney, MD, professor of internal medicine and urology at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Cooney leads efforts to focus research on understanding what genetic factors lead to this disparity for prostate cancer.

Different genes

African-American men have the highest incidence of prostate cancer in the world and prostate cancer tends to be more aggressive and deadly in African- Americans than in whites.

Research has shown that different genes may be involved in prostate cancer in black than in white men

"If the genetic risk factors are different between African-American men and Caucasian men, we need to know that in order to develop genetic tests appropriate for different populations," says Cooney.

Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in American men, with about 27,050 men expected to die from the disease this year. African-Americans are 2.4 times more likely to die from prostate cancer.

Published: 12 September 2007
Issue: 1286