MONDAY, Sept. 27, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Elderly black men are only 50 percent as likely to get tested for prostate cancer as elderly white men are, says a study in the current issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston examined differences in the use of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test among white and black men aged 65 and older who took part in the Medicare and/or Medicaid program in New Jersey.
The researchers compared the medical records of 33,463 men who had routine prostate cancer screening between early 1994 and late 1996 and compared them to 33,782 men who weren't tested for prostate cancer.
"Elderly blacks are substantially less likely to undergo PSA screening than elderly whites," the study authors wrote. "Differences in socioeconomic status and comorbid conditions explain only a small part of the racial differences in screening rates."
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about prostate cancer.
