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Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month! This month aims to increase public awareness of the importance of prostate health and screenings, educate about risk factors and symptoms, and advocate for further research on prostate health issues.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) reports that prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States. One of the most prominent findings in prostate cancer epidemiology is a higher risk among African American men associated with family history (genetics), behaviors (lifestyle factors) such as diet and exercise, and age (Vickers et al., 2023). Additionally, the incidence rates of prostate cancer among African American men are two times higher compared to white men, and death rates are about three times higher compared to white men (Siegel et al., 2022).
Bringing awareness to prostate cancer promotes early prevention, detection, and intervention. Therefore, it is essential to identify and address the many barriers to prostate cancer screening, such as geographic disparities where black males may have less access to high-quality prostate cancer care in rural areas, financial barriers related to insurance coverage for screenings, or knowledge barriers where black male patients report not receiving education about prostate cancer screenings (Frego et al., 2024).
To address prostate cancer disparities, NCI-funded researchers study the causes of inequities in prostate cancer cases and deaths and work to improve outcomes for underrepresented populations, such as African American men. Recommendations to tackle prostate cancer disparities include education tailored to the needs of each community, improved access to care by providing rural clinic areas through partnerships, DEI among healthcare professionals, patient navigators that tend to patients’ needs with transportation and financial barriers, and clinical trials that focus increasing enrollment of underrepresented populations to address systemic inequities regarding prostate cancer treatment and outcomes.
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