Genetic and Behavioral Differences Add to Prostate Cancer Disparities

African-American men face an observable disadvantage versus Caucasian men when it comes to prostate cancer survival. Not only is prostate cancer detected later in African Americans, it is often more aggressive and harder to treat.

Findings on the social and biological factors influencing disparities among African-American men are reported today at the American Association for Cancer Research conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, being held November 27-30 in Atlanta. New research on the effects of weight, genetics and even religious beliefs on prostate cancer are among the day’s highlights.

An exploratory investigation of prostate cancer knowledge, cultural beliefs, and values among black men of West African ancestry, Abstract no. A-3:

A survey of African-American and Nigerian men shows that African-American men are more fatalistic in their cancer beliefs and less likely to exhibit religious coping skills, according to a team of researchers based at Florida A&M University and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.

Among all American ethnic groups, African-American men tend to suffer disproportionately from aggressive prostate cancer, which is often detected at a much later stage. This survey provides a baseline of African-American cultural beliefs and values toward prostate cancer that might serve in crafting prostate cancer awareness programs, the researchers say.

“Men who have fatalistic beliefs about prostate cancer, for example, may be less likely to take the steps necessary to prevent cancer or undergo cancer screening to detect cancer,” said lead researcher, Folakemi T. Odedina, Ph.D., professor and director of Florida A&M’s Economic, Social & Administrative Pharmacy program. “These are cultural beliefs that compound existing health disparities for African-American men, and we must understand these beliefs if we are to understand how to change behavior.”

The study is the first to compare cultural knowledge and beliefs among African-American, indigenous West African and West African immigrant men in an attempt to uncover the cultural components of the prostate cancer disparity. According to Odedina, both Nigerian men and West African immigrants to the United States are reported to have a lower incidence of prostate cancer than African-Americans, although some studies conflict regarding the magnitude of this difference.

The survey, conducted by Odedina and her colleagues in the United States and Nigeria, gauged the attitudes of African-American men, Nigerian men, and Nigerian men who have moved to the United States.

“We decided to understand prostate cancer health disparities in African-American men by separating environmental and psycho-social factors from genetics,” Odedina said. “Since the Trans-Atlantic slave trade took so many men from West Africa - more than a third of slaves came from the Nigeria region, alone - African-American and West African men have similar genetic backgrounds, but much cultural dissimilarity.”