Although Black men appeared to have more aggressive disease when they enrolled in clinical trials of radiation therapy for prostate cancer, their treatment outcomes and disease-specific outcomes were better than those of their white counterparts. That’s the “unexpected result” researchers found in a meta-analysis of seven randomized trials.
“These results provide high-level evidence challenging the common belief that Black men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer will necessarily have a worse prognosis than white men,” said Amar Kishan, MD (above), of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UCLA.
“This is especially important because an unfounded belief can inadvertently contribute to ‘cancer injustice,’ leading to the use of more aggressive treatments than might be necessary—potentially reducing quality of life—and diverting attention away from other important factors that can influence outcome, including access to more comprehensive healthcare.”
- See “Study: Although they tend to be diagnosed with higher-risk prostate cancer, Black men undergoing radiation therapy have better outcomes than white men” on the EurekAlert! website (December 29, 2021)
- See the full text of the scientific paper “Comparison of Response to Definitive Radiotherapy for Localized Prostate Cancer in Black and White Men” by Ting Martin Ma et al.
