Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Low-income men more likely to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer

Low-income men are more likely to present with advanced prostate cancers, most likely because they don't receive screening services shown to reduce the diagnosis of later-stage cancers, a UCLA study found.

Treated with cancer drugs, prostate cancer is a disease in which abnormal tumor cells develop in the prostate gland of men.

Researchers found that of the 570 men studied, 19 percent had metastatic cancer at diagnosis, compared to 4 percent of men from the general population who were followed in other studies.

The study also found that the diagnosis rates for lower-risk, less advanced cancers in the IMPACT (Improving Access, Counseling and Treatment for Californians with Prostate Cancer) patients did not increase over time, while the diagnosis rates of lower-risk, less advanced cancers did go up for men in more affluent populations.

The study will be Published in the February 2009 issue of The Journal of Urology.

Dr. William Aronson, the senior author of the study, a clinical professor in the UCLA Department of Urology and a researcher at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center said, "...the persistent preponderance of metastatic and higher risk localized cancers in these men suggests that more comprehensive strategies are needed to eliminate the disparities in prostate cancer morbidity and mortality."

...these findings "serve as a reminder that for disadvantaged men, under-detection and under-treatment of prostate cancer remains a significant concern," the study states.

"Improving access to the preventive and treatment aspects of health care will go a long way toward reducing the disparities in disease morbidity and mortality suffered by poor and minority communities," writes Dr. M. Norman Oliver, director of the University of Virginia Center of Health Disparities.

Source: University of California - Los Angeles

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