England: Black men twice as likely as white men to die from prostate cancer

Black men in England are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer when compared with white men in the same country.

A research paper published in BMC Medicine also shows Asian men in England are half as likely to die from prostate cancer compared with white men.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer for men in the UK. Some 41,736 males were diagnosed with the life-threatening disease in 2011 and it is expected be the most common cancer diagnosis by 2030.

The report from Prostate Cancer UK states there is a one in eight chance that a white man will be diagnosed with it in his lifetime, whereas this rises to one in four for black men. This falls to one in 13 for Asian males (including Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Other Asian), though. The chances of dying from prostate cancer is one in 24 for white men, one in 12 for black men and one in 44 for Asians.

Alison Cooper, from Prostate Cancer UK and lead author of the report said: "We already knew that black men were more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than white men, however, the data we had was fast becoming out of date.

"The study also provides important absolute risk figures to help black men better understand their risk of developing prostate cancer. These figures can be used for targeted awareness-raising and to help them make an informed decision about whether or not to have a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test."

The scientists came to their conclusion after analysing the mortality rate for prostate cancer in England between 2008 and 2010, with 26,521 deaths. However, they state that further research needs to be done to understand the reasons why it varies across different ethnicity groups.