Screening saves lives: the reality about prostate cancer and Black men

According to the American Cancer Society Black men have an estimated 70% to 110% higher incidence and mortality rate for prostate cancer than white men overall in the U.S.

- By HEATHER M. BUTTS, JD, MPH, MA Special to the AmNews

((Pexels/Ninthgrid))

To Dr. Jonathan Fainberg, assistant professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College it is good that September is designated to spread awareness of the disease, but the real key all year round is early detection.

“Early detection of cancer is critical across nearly every cancer because we know that treatment of early cancer can be minimal treatment with few side effects. Whereas if we wait, treating things that are more advanced tend to require more aggressive treatments with more side effects.”

In the Black community, though, there is a reason it affects men more often than white men.

“Historically, it was always thought that African American men or men of African and Caribbean ancestry had more aggressive prostate cancer than white or European men because they tended to die more often from prostate cancer than their non-Black counterparts,” Fainberg explained.

However, as the science in genetics has studied the disease, it's become clear that a tremendous portion of the reason that Black men dying more often from prostate cancer than their non-Black men is linked to screening.