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Many Asian Men Show A Greater Ability To Survive Prostate Cancer

By: Don Saunders Next to skin cancer, prostate cancer is now the most frequently seen form of cancer in American men and it is predicted that just about 220,000 men in the United States alone will be diagnosed as having prostate cancer in 2007 and that just over 27,000 men will die from the disease.

However, as is the case with many diseases, survival rates from prostate cancer are not the same around the globe and this should provide us with data that will allow us to improve our treatment methods.

A recent study examined data on almost 117,000 men with prostate cancer (some 108,000 white men and nearly 9,000 Asians drawn from the six largest Asian ethnicities - , Chinese, Korean, Japanese, South Asian, Filipino and Vietnamese). The study examined prognostic factors and survival rates for these men.

Amongst the many findings from the study it was found that the risk profile for Asian men was worse than that for white men, with Asian men being more likely to have advanced prostate cancer by the time of diagnosis and of being treated with a variety of non-curative therapies. However, the study also showed that the survival rates for Asian men were either equal to or better than the rates seen in white men.

These results were particularly surprising when we consider that the age at which Asian men are diagnosed as having prostate cancer is considerably higher than that for white men and that their cancer is often further advanced, which should clearly indicate a lower survival rate.

When the figures were studied in more detail however it was revealed that there was a very noticeable variation between different groups of Asian men. As an example, Japanese-American men were thirty-four percent less likely to die as a result of prostate cancer, while men from South Asia (including, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan) were forty percent more likely to die from prostate cancer.

So just what does this mean? Unfortunately the answer would appear to be very little. These differences are without doubt big enough to be significant, but the wide variation between several largely similar groups makes it virtually impossible to draw any real conclusions. Certainly there are several things, such as diet, exercise and genetics, that are a factor but several of the findings appear to be almost contradictory.

The result is that, a study that it was hoped would identify differences across ethic groups which would permit us to improve prostate cancer treatment has in fact produced more questions that it has answered. Actually, apart from exentuating the dangers of reaching conclusions based upon too large a group, as seen in the difference between the figures for Asian men as a whole and men from just South Asia, the study has revealed that the differences were larger than many people had believed and therefore suggest that the differences could indeed be more significant than previously believed.

As things stand, this study does not take us any further forward but it has highlighted the need for further investigation that will hopefully provide us with better data and allow us to exploit the better survival rates in many Asian groups in putting together treatment plans for prostate cancer.

Article Source: http://www.lifeweightloss.com

ProstateProblemCenter.com provides information on prostate cancer from understanding prostate cancer symptoms to the therapeutic use of prostate milking

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