NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research suggests that roughly one in five American men in their 40s has had a blood test to screen for prostate cancer within the last year. However, screening rates in black men are still considered suboptimal, the investigators say.
"Our findings for black men are discouraging," senior investigator Dr. Judd W. Moul from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, commented in a written statement. "We've been encouraging black men to get screened at age 40 or 45 for more than a decade, yet only one-third of these high-risk men reported being tested."
Blood levels of a protein called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, typically rise when a man has prostate cancer, so PSA testing is often used to screen for the disease.
It is generally recommended that men discuss PSA screening for prostate cancer with their doctors starting at age 50. However, the American Cancer Society recommends screening at age 45 for African American men, or earlier if there is a strong family history.
The new study posted online today in the journal Cancer involved an analysis of data collected in 2002 on 58,511 men aged 40 and older.
The findings suggest that young black men are 2.4 times more likely than their white counterparts to undergo PSA screening. Still, the investigators comment that the rate in black men -- 33.6 percent -- is disappointingly low considering that they are at higher risk for prostate cancer.
Overall, 22.5 percent of men aged 40 to 49 and 53.7 percent of older men reported having a PSA screen in the prior year. Predictors of PSA testing in young men included an annual household income of $35,000 or greater, having an ongoing relationship with a physician, and health insurance coverage.
SOURCE: Cancer, online August 11, 2008.
