Race is not independently associated with a positive prostate biopsy in men suspected of having prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVES To examine whether race is associated with the prostate biopsy result after controlling for other clinical factors in men undergoing ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy to evaluate an elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) or an abnormal digital rectal examination (DRE), or both. METHODS We reviewed the records of all men undergoing transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy at our facilities from January 1990 through March 1998. This included 1056 white men and 874 black men. Patient age, serum PSA, indication for prostate biopsy, and race were examined for association with the biopsy result. RESULTS Of the 1 930 black and white men who underwent prostate biopsy, 639 (33%) had cancer, including 355 (41%) of 874 black men and 284 (27%) of 1056 white men. Serum PSA, abnormal DRE, and age were independent predictors of a prostate biopsy being positive for cancer. Race was not an independent predictor of cancer being identified in the prostate biopsy. CONCLUSIONS After controlling for PSA, DRE, and age, black men were not at an increased risk of a positive prostate biopsy relative to white men. Our data do not support the need to consider race when estimating the probability that a man has prostate cancer.

[1]  J. Eastham,et al.  Clinical Characteristics and Biopsy Specimen Features in African-American and White Men Without Prostate Cancer , 1998 .

[2]  C. Boring,et al.  Cancer statistics for african americans , 1992, CA: a cancer journal for clinicians.

[3]  Srinivasan Vijayakumar,et al.  Prostate cancer, race, and socioeconomic status: Inadequate adjustment for social factors in assessing racial differences , 1996, The Prostate.

[4]  I. Powell,et al.  Prostate cancer and African-American men. , 1997, Oncology.

[5]  Srinivasan Vijayakumar,et al.  Racial differences in prostate‐specific antigen levels in patients with local‐regional prostate cancer , 1992, The Prostate.

[6]  F. Mostofi,et al.  Prostate-specific antigen values at the time of prostate cancer diagnosis in African-American men. , 1995, JAMA.

[7]  J. Oesterling,et al.  Prostate specific antigen in the staging of localized prostate cancer: influence of tumor differentiation, tumor volume and benign hyperplasia. , 1990, The Journal of urology.

[8]  J. Oesterling,et al.  Serum prostate-specific antigen in a community-based population of healthy Japanese men: lower values than for similarly aged white men. , 1995, British journal of urology.

[9]  R. Morton,et al.  Racial differences in adenocarcinoma of the prostate in North American men. , 1994, Urology.

[10]  P. Carroll,et al.  Prospective evaluation of prostate specific antigen and prostate specific antigen density in the detection of carcinoma of the prostate: ethnic variations. , 1997, The Journal of urology.

[11]  M. Benson,et al.  The use of prostate specific antigen density to enhance the predictive value of intermediate levels of serum prostate specific antigen. , 1992, The Journal of urology.

[12]  J. Oesterling,et al.  Age- and race-specific reference ranges for prostate-specific antigen from a large community-based study. , 1996, Urology.

[13]  P. Wingo,et al.  Cancer statistics, 1997 , 1997, CA: a cancer journal for clinicians.

[14]  J. Moul,et al.  Age-specific reference ranges for serum prostate-specific antigen in black men. , 1996, The New England journal of medicine.

[15]  C. Ed,et al.  PSA as a screening test for prostate cancer. , 1993 .