Good news for black men in studies on prostate cancer

CHICAGO — Black men with advanced prostate cancer fared surprisingly well in two new studies that challenge current thinking about racial disparities in the disease.

Blacks are more likely to get prostate cancer and to die from it than whites, but the new research suggests getting access to the same treatment may help balance the odds — even if it doesn’t greatly extend life after cancer has spread. Given the same standard treatments, blacks with advanced disease may do even better than whites, the studies suggest.

Both were presented Friday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.

The lead author of one study, Susan Halabi of Duke University, said the results “are contrary to the mainstream understanding” that blacks fare worse than whites with prostate cancer. She said the analysis highlights the importance of minorities participating in medical studies.

Her report pooled results from nine studies in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and focused on the more than 7,000 whites and 500 blacks with advanced prostate cancer who had stopped responding to hormone therapy. Patients’ average age was 69, and most had cancer that had spread to their bones. The men were all treated with standard chemotherapy.

The analysis found that black men fared at least as well as whites, with both groups surviving almost two years after starting treatment. But researchers found a slight survival advantage for black men — they were about 20 percent less likely than whites to die — when taking into account patients’ individual characteristics, including tumor type and levels of PSA, a blood protein that can be elevated in cancer.

That blacks may do even better underscores the need to dig deeper to find out why, said Halabi. It’s possible black men who enroll in prostate cancer studies are healthier than other patients or they might have biological differences that make them respond better to treatment, she said.

The results suggest that access to care is key, said Dr. Richard Schilsky, the society’s chief medical officer. If men are diagnosed later and not treated as quickly or as well, “of course the outcomes are going to be worse,” he said.