Earlier prostate-specific antigen testing in African American men-Clinical support for the recommendation - Abstract

BACKGROUND: To determine whether prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in African American veterans (AAVs) aged 40 to 54 years is associated with high-risk prostate cancer characteristics compared with AAVs aged 55 to 70 years or white veterans (WVs) aged 40 to 54 years.

METHODS: A total of 231,174 healthy veterans aged 40 to 70 years without clinical evidence of prostate cancer underwent PSA testing between October 1, 2000, and September 30, 2007. Clinicopathologic tumor characteristics were available for 1,044/1,059 AAVs and 1,006/1,971 age-matched WVs diagnosed with prostate cancer after a PSA level >4ng/ml triggered prostate biopsy. Tumor characteristics of AAVs aged 40 to 54 years were compared with AAVs 55 to 70 years, WVs 40 to 54 years, and WVs 55 to 70 years.

RESULTS: Of PSA-tested veterans aged 40 to 54 years diagnosed with prostate cancer, there were no racial differences in prebiopsy PSA levels, prostate cancer grade, or clinical stage at diagnosis. AAVs aged 40 to 54 years were more likely to have ≥3 positive cores (P = 0.0229) and were less likely to be active surveillance candidates (P = 0.0340) compared with similarly aged WVs. AAVs aged 55 to 70 years were more likely to have high-grade (P = 0.0204) and higher clinical stage (P = 0.0195) prostate cancer than AAVs aged 40 to 54 years.

CONCLUSIONS: This large national cohort study suggests that PSA testing at an earlier age for African American men may allow diagnosis of lower risk prostate cancer, potentially reducing disparate outcomes between AAVs and WVs.

Written by:
Saltzman AF, Luo S, Scherrer , Carson KD, Grubb RL 3rd, Hudson MA.   Are you the author?
Department of Urology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA; Clinical Research and Epidemiology Workgroup, John Cochran Veterans Affairs Medical Center, St. Louis, MO; Division of Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO; Division of Urologic Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; Department of Urology, Diagnostic Clinic of Longview, Longview, TX.  

Reference: Urol Oncol. 2015 Jul;33(7):330.e9-330.e17.
doi: 10.1016/j.urolonc.2015.03.018


PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25937424

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