The associations between initial PSA, year of diagnosis, and race in prostate cancer patients seen at a university hospital and its community affiliates

Abstract

Purpose/Objective: We sought to determine if African-American men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the PSA era differed in initial presenting serum PSA levels (iPSA) compared to white men. Recent retrospective studies have demonstrated higher iPSA within the African-American men than in white men at the time of diagnosis, suggestive of more advanced disease in African-American men. Both biological differences and/or socioeconomic factors have been postulated to explain the noted differences in iPSA. We reviewed our institution’s PSA-era experience to determine any association between race and iPSA, and changes over time.