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Among men with prostate cancer and similar economic and insurance circumstances, Blacks live longer than Whites

Annual PSA prostate cancer screening may be particularly important for Black men, suggests a new study of 45,834 veterans, aged 55–69 years, who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2004 and 2017.

The study found that annual prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening significantly reduced the risk of dying from prostate cancer among Black men but not White men. The mortality rate for Black men who underwent had annual PSA screening was 4.7 percent, but it was 7.3 percent for those who didn’t get this screening every year.

“A shorter screening interval may be valuable for detecting aggressive disease, which is more common in Black men,” said the researchers, led by University of California, San Diego, radiation oncology resident Michael Sherer, MD.

“Given that Black men are younger at diagnosis and have worse prostate cancer survival compared with White men,” more intensive screening recommendations “may benefit Black patients,” they concluded.

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