BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - According to a report from Dr. Robbins and colleagues that appears in the online version of Cancer about men residing in California, those of South Asian ancestry fare worse with prostate cancer (CaP) compared to white men or those from other Asian regions.

The California Cancer Registry was the database used for the study of men residing in California. Non-Hispanic whites were compared to 6 Asian subgroups: Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and South Asian. South Asian refers to men tracing their ancestry to Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. Men included in the analysis had a diagnosis of prostate cancer (CaP) between 1995 and 2004 and prognostic factors and survival were assessed. A total of 143,752 cases were identified among these 7 ethnic groups.

The data included 485,433 person-years of follow-up and during this time 17,802 men (15.2%) died. CaP was the listed cause in 6,157 patients (34.6%). Thus, the overall proportion of men who died from CaP was 5.3%. In comparison to whites, all Asian subgroups had unfavorable distributions of summary stage, histologic grade, and primary treatment. For example, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese men had unfavorable distributions for 5 of the 6 prognostic factors, and South Asian men had unfavorable distributions for 3 of the 6 prognostic factors.

Although the Asian subgroups had poorer risk profiles, all Asian subgroups except South Asian men had lower 10-year risk of death due to CaP than whites. Japanese men had the lowest risk, followed by Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, and Filipino men. South Asian men had a higher risk than whites. The 10-year risk of death from CaP was 11.9%, but the variation in risk across the subgroups ranged from 8.1% in Japanese men to 16.4% in South Asian men. Factors in addition to race that were significant in multivariable analysis were summary stage, followed by histologic grade, primary treatment, age, SES, and year of diagnosis.

Robbins AS, Koppie TM, Gomez SL, Parikh-Patel A, Mills PK

Cancer. ePub: August 13, 2007
Doi: 10.1002/cncr.22872

UroToday.com Prostate Cancer Section

Written by Christopher P. Evans, MD, a Contributing Editor with UroToday.

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