Age-related racial disparities in prostate cancer patients: A systematic review

Prostate cancer mortality rates have decreased over recent decades, but racial disparities in prostate cancer survival still present as a serious challenge. These disparities may be impacted by age; in fact, African-American men younger than age 65 have prostate cancer mortality rates nearly three times greater than that of White men. Therefore, a systematic literature review was conducted in Medline and EMBASE databases focusing on articles comparing survival and mortality rates for prostate cancer patients across age and race.

Articles included were based on the following criteria: (1) included African-American and White prostate cancer patients residing in the US; (2) measured racial disparities across distinct age categories with at least one category below and one above age 65; and (3) addressed racial disparities in terms of overall survival or mortality.

Twenty eight articles compared survival and mortality disparities between African-American and White prostate cancer patients across different age categories. Of the 28 articles, 19 articles (68%) showed disparities decreased with age, 8 articles (29%) showed disparities constant with age, and 1 article (3%) showed disparities increased with age.

More often the survival and mortality gap between African-American and White prostate cancer patients decreases with age. Additional studies are needed to elucidate other factors that may influence racial disparities in prostate cancer patients. These results provide insight into the racial disparities in prostate cancer and suggest more resources should be directed towards decreasing the disparity gap in younger prostate cancer patients.