Many Asian Men Demonstrate A Greater Ability To Survive Prostate Cancer than White Men

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Many Asian Men Demonstrate A Greater Ability To Survive Prostate Cancer than White Men

By abhay | August 6, 2009

Next to skin cancer, prostate cancer is now the most frequently seen form of cancer in American men and it is predicted that just about 220,000 men in the US will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during 2007 and that some 27,000 men will die from the disease.

But, as is the case with many diseases, prostate cancer survival rates are not the same around the globe and this should provide us with data which will permit us to improve our treatment options.

A recent study examined data on around 117,000 men with prostate cancer (just over 108,000 white men and nearly 9,000 Asians drawn from the six largest Asian ethnicities – Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, South Asian and Vietnamese). The study examined prognostic factors and survival rates for these men.

Amongst the various findings of the study it was seen that the risk profile for Asians was worse than that for whites, with Asian men being more likely to suffer from advanced prostate cancer at the time of diagnosis and of being treated with a range of non-curative therapies. But, the study also showed that the survival rates for Asian men were either equal to or better than those seen in white men.

These results were particularly surprising when we consider that the age at which Asian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer is considerably higher than that for white men and that their cancer is normally more advanced, which ought to suggest a reduced survival rate.

When the statistics were examined in greater detail however it was revealed that there was a significant variation between different Asian groups. As an example, Japanese-American men were one-third less likely to die as a result of prostate cancer, while men from South Asia (including India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan) were forty percent more likely to die from the condition.

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So just what does this mean? Well, unfortunately the answer would seem to be very little. These variations are undoubtedly large enough to be significant, but the wide variation between many largely similar groups means that it is virtually impossible to draw any concrete conclusions. Certainly there are a variety of things, such as exercise, diet and genetics, which are a factor but many of the findings appear to be almost contradictory.

The result is that, a study which it was hoped would point to differences between ethic groups which would permit us to improve our treatment options has actually produced more questions that it has answered. Actually, aside from exentuating the dangers of drawing conclusions from too large a group, as seen in the wide variation in the figures for Asian men in general and men from just South Asia, the study has shown that the differences were larger than most people had thought and therefore suggest that these variations might indeed be more significant than previously thought.

As things stand, this study does not take us any further forward but has highlighted the need for further investigation which will hopefully provide us with better data and allow us to exploit the better survival rates in many Asian men in putting together prostate cancer treatment plans.

ProstateProblemCenter.com provides information on prostate cancer from understanding prostate cancer symptoms to examining different forms of prostate cancer treatment

Tags: variations, skin cancer, treatment options, prostate cancer, cancer prostate, survival rate, white men, american men, asians, south asia, risk profile

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