Why black men have a higher risk of prostate cancer than whites

There’s a new study which shows that black men are at a higher risk of getting prostate cancer because of the elevated levels of prostate specific antigen in their blood.

Prof Riana Bornman, Senior Research, Professor at the University of Pretoria school of Health Systems and Public Health, and Professor Vanessa Hayes, a genomicst from the Garvin Medical Institute for Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, focused their research on prostate cancer in black southern African men of bantu and Khoisan.

This was to help them understand the possible link between prostate cancer and the African ancestry.

The study done covered hospitals in Limpopo and Gauteng and 99% of those who participated were African patients. They found out that the African patients had a higher aggressive prostate cancer compared to European patients.

As per the previous research, the African American men are 17 times more likely to develop the prostate cancer of which most of them are young and in the ages of 40s and 50s as compared to European American.

The most common risk factors for prostate cancer in African ancestry is increasing age, especially from 50 upwards. Family history of prostate cancer, which can be paternal or maternal, is also a leading risk factor. This is according to Prof. Riana Bornman.

Also, transformation from latent to aggressive prostate cancer might occur earlier in black men according to the research authors.