Black men with prostate cancer less likely to receive shorter radiation regimen linked to higher rates of treatment completion

Black men with prostate cancer were less likely than White men to receive stereotactic body radiotherapy or moderately hypofractionated external-beam radiotherapy, despite evidence showing that shorter radiotherapy regimens are associated with higher rates of treatment completion.

In this study of 170,386 U.S. men with localized prostate cancer who underwent radiation therapy without radical prostatectomy, Black patients were less likely to complete their treatment.

• See “Racial Disparities in Radiotherapy Regimens for Prostate and Breast Cancer” by Andrea S. Blevins Primeau on the Oncology Nurse Advisor website (December 15, 2022)
• See the abstract of the scientific paper “Shorter Radiation Regimens and Treatment Noncompletion Among Patients With Breast and Prostate Cancer in the United States: An Analysis of Racial Disparities in Access and Quality” by Edward Christopher Dee et al.