Studies link prostate cancer and heart disease in black men

A brand new study shows the link between prostate cancer and differences in blood vessel health between black and white men. Scientists from the Medical College of Georgia presented their findings on the American Physiology Summit, held April 4–7 in Long Beach, California.

According to Physiology.org, there are already well-documented racial differences in the incidence of prostate cancer results between black and white men, and the invention of microvascular disorders signifies that the black men they studied with prostate cancer are also liable to heart disease.

Scientists hope the invention will result in treatments that may help eliminate racial disparities between black and white prostate cancer patients and improve treatment outcomes for black men.

Abigayle Simon, lead writer of the study, told Physiology.org: “Understanding how race influences the course of vascular health over time after a prostate cancer diagnosis will result in the event of simpler therapeutic strategies to cut back the cardiovascular burden related to cancer “.

As NBC News reports, yes it’s unclear whether prostate cancer is more common in black men than in white menbut in response to Dr. Abhinav Khanna, a urologist on the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, it appears to be more aggressive.

According to Khanna, black men are twice as more likely to die from prostate cancer than white men. “Not all prostate cancer is fatal, but we have seen that black men have a higher risk of dying from prostate cancer,” Khanna said.

This increased risk could also be as a consequence of Black men being less more likely to be screened for prostate cancer, in response to a study published in a 2022 medical journal.

“If you have first-degree or even second-degree relatives who have prostate cancer, your risk increases slightly,” Dr. Adam Murphy, a urologist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, told NBC News. “And then there are related cancers that run in families, such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and other germline genetic mutations that can increase risk, such as Lynch syndrome.”

According to Murphy, the controversy surrounding Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin illustrates the stigma around Black men’s sensitivity to prostate health. “The way men engage in health care is very different from what women do because they don’t have to go to an OB/GYN,” Murphy said. “And that’s why men often lose their way after high school or college.”

Murphy continued: “I think his (Secretary of Defense Austin) action was to kind of highlight the fact that even though he had an obligation to tell the White House about this fact, the same stigma remained, that’s how strong it was.”