Prostate Cancer is one of the leading causes of male cancer related deaths. African American men who are diagnosed with this disease are over two times more likely to die from it than any other ethnic group. Even with this being a proven fact there are little to know studies that investigate why nor how to remedy the disparity. When a man begins the screening process and all the way until the beginning of treatment, the same guidelines are followed regardless of the patients’ ethnic background. This tactic has led to the developed of the disparity that: African American, even when diagnosed with prostate cancer of similar aggressiveness and receive the same treatments as other non-African American patients, are continuously found to have a less likely chance of survival. Despite all the research and the recurring disparity treatments are continued in the same manner. While the exact reasoning as to why African American males do not respond similarly to treatments as other ethnic groups remains unexplained. It could stem from internal differences, screening process, diagnosing methods, or the treatments themselves. Internal differences, like melanin levels, cannot be changed, but there are ways to circumvent these inevitable differences. Existing studies allow for parallels to be drawn about what effect these inevitable differences may have on the African American response to treatment methods; but clinical trials will need to be completed in order to determine if the parallels drawn hold any merit and if they have the ability to fix the disparity. Once those differences are understood, it will be time to conduct new research to determine if those changes are sufficient enough to eliminate the over two percent chance that African American men are more likely to die from a disease when compared to others.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/42189 |
| Date | 27 February 2021 |
| Creators | Reynolds, Janeen |
| Contributors | Offner, Gwynneth |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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