Incidence of prostate cancer among African Americans
February 18th, 2009 Posted in prostate cancerThe American Cancer Society (ACS) has just released its biannual publication Cancer Facts and Figures in African Americans, 2009-2010. However, publication of the complete Cancer Facts and Figures 2009, which is normally published by early February each year, has been delayed due to the late release of the US final mortality for 2006 by the National Center for Statistics.
According to this new ACS report, about a third of African American men can expect a lifetime diagnosis of prostate cancer, which is not an encouraging figure, and only adds to the pressure on researchers to find better ways to discriminate between those men who really do need treatment and those who can be managed effectively with active surveillance.
The good news in the report is that cancer survival in African American men has been improving, and declines in prostate cancer and lung cancer mortality are a primary and important component of this decline. The full report is already available on line.