Prostate Cancer Screening Guidelines for African American Veterans: A New Perspective

Background: Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer, other than skin cancers. in American men and the second leading cause of cancer deaths. In 2012, the US Preventative Task Face recommended against the prostate specific anger based screening for prostate cancer. regardless of race or age, due to overtreatment of low-risk disease and lack of impact on disease outcomes. In African-American men, however, the incidence of prostate cancer is almost 606 higher and the modality rate is two- to three-times greater than that of Caucasian men. In the subpopulation of African-American veterans, many have been exposed to chemicals that increase incidence of high-risk prostate cancer. The yearly total number of veterans with prostate cancer based on quantification is 3471.9, and the total number of annual prostate cancer deaths is 556. Considering these f acts, we examine whether or not it is appropriate to screen African-American veteran males for prostate cancer. Previously, we reviewed data on African-Americans in the general population. We concluded that new guidelines needed to be implemented for screening African-Americans. Here we review the pertinent issues related to African-American veterans. Methods: We performed a PubMed and Google Scholar search using the keywords: African-American veteran. prostate cancer. mortality. PSA density. molecular markers. and Agent Orange. The articles that were relevant to the clinical. molecular. socia . and health policy aspects o' the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer in Mican-Americar veterans were analyzed. The data was then summarized. Results: After surveying the literature, we found severa: areas where the African-American veteran population differed from their Caucasian counterparts. These areas were incidence, clinical course, social differences, PSA levels, mortality rate, and molecular markers. A subset of the veteran population was also exposed to Agent Orange. which has beer shown to increase the incidence of aggressive forms of prostate cancer. Lastly, the current USPTF guidelines recommending against prostate cancer screening were based on patient cohorts containing disproportionately low numbers of African-Americans. limiting their extension to the African-American veteran population. Conclusion: After reviewing and summarizing the literature, we contend that a need exists to develop and implement more targeted prostate cancer screening guidelines for African-American veterans.