Genetic factors implicated in survival gap for prostate cancer

A new finding reveals that African-American patients with prostate cancer tend to die earlier than patients of other races with this cancer, even when they receive identical medical treatment and when socioeconomic factors are controlled for. The finding, an analysis of almost 20,000 patient records from 35 clinical trials, points to biological or genetic factors as the potential source of the survival gap. Dawn Hershman, M.D, M.S., a Columbia University Medical Center oncologist whose research is dedicated to examining racial and ethnic disparities in cancer outcome and in cancer survivorship, was the senior author of the research published online by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI).