Black men underestimate prostate risk

CHICAGO, June 6 (UPI) -- Many African-American men underestimate the likelihood of a needle biopsy for suspected prostate cancer resulting in a cancer diagnosis, says a U.S. study.

"A group that underestimates the risk of having cancer is likely to underestimate the value of early detection and thus skip the whole process, which may explain, in part, why African-American men are so often diagnosed later and thus have worse outcomes," study author Dr. William Dale, of the University of Chicago, said in a statement.

Despite being referred for biopsy because they were known to be at increased risk for prostate cancer -- usually due to a blood test -- 55 percent of the African-American men at the time of prostate biopsy said they had a 0 percent chance of having prostate cancer. Caucasian men said they had a 20 percent chance.

Of the African-American men in the clinics whose biopsy results were available to the researchers, 70 percent were subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer, compared with 50 percent of the Caucasians.

The study was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.