Facing prostate cancer can bring fear, uncertainty, and difficult decisions. It can also bring strength, clarity, and connection. Whether you are newly diagnosed, in treatment, in remission, or supporting someone you love, your journey matters.

This space is here to:

• Provide trusted, evidence-based information

• Encourage proactive screening and early detection

• Support informed conversations with healthcare providers

• Promote culturally competent, patient-centered care

• Uplift stories of survival, courage, and hope

Black History Month: Honoring Legacy, Confronting Inequality.

Black History Month is a time to recognize the resilience, leadership, and enduring contributions of Black communities across generations. It is also a time to confront the inequities that continue to place Black lives at risk—particularly in the realm of health. Among the most urgent and persistent disparities is prostate cancer.

While prostate cancer affects men across all racial and ethnic groups, its impact on Black men reflects a profound and unacceptable inequity. Black men are diagnosed at higher rates and are more likely to die from prostate cancer than any other racial group. These outcomes are neither inevitable nor defensible.

The Disproportionate Impact on Black Men

According to Zero Cancer, Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in the United States (excluding skin cancer) and the second-leading cause of cancer-related death. In 2026, an estimated 333,830 new cases and 36,320 deaths are projected nationwide (American Cancer Society, 2026 Facts & Figures).

For Black men, the burden is substantially greater:

• Black men are 7 times more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than White men.
• They are more than twice as likely (2.1x) to die from the disease.
• The lifetime risk is 1 in 6 for Black men, compared to 1 in 8 for men overall.
• Prostate cancer accounts for approximately 44% of all cancer diagnoses among Black men in the United States.

These figures represent more than epidemiological data. They represent fathers, sons, brothers, mentors, and community leaders whose lives carry immeasurable value.

The drivers of this disparity are multifactorial. While genetic factors may play a role, structural determinants of health are central: inequitable access to high-quality care, implicit bias within healthcare delivery systems, reduced access to early detection, and longstanding socioeconomic inequities. Black men are also less likely to be offered PSA screening, despite clear evidence that early detection significantly improves survival outcomes.

This is not solely a clinical issue. It is an equity issue—and fundamentally, a justice issue.

• The pursuit of health equity is inseparable from the broader civil rights movement. Ensuring that Black men live longer, healthier lives is not ancillary to that legacy—it is a continuation of it.

Conclusion: Honor. Act. Prevent.

Black History Month celebrates resilience, brilliance, and collective strength. Confronting health disparities with intention, investment, and accountability moves us closer to a future in which prostate cancer no longer disproportionately claims Black lives.

Let us honor our history not only with remembrance—but with action that shapes a healthier tomorrow.

 

 

Black men should be screened for prostate cancer more proactively. Why?

Given the higher risk of developing prostate cancer and dying from the disease, Black men are more likely to have early cancer detection through screening. The main prostate cancer screening tests are a digital rectal exam, in which a doctor checks for an enlarged prostate, and a PSA test, which measures the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the blood.

“Screening guidelines have been based on studies that included very few Black men, so they may underestimate the screening benefit for this group,” Dr. Laccetti says. “Overall, Black men may need earlier and more frequent screening than the general guidelines would suggest.”

This recognition of the increased risk led to the new PSA screening guidelines from the PCF.

“This new recommendation reflects the medical community’s awareness that Black men should be especially vigilant about prostate cancer and consider starting screening at a younger age than non-Black men in the general U.S. population,” says MSK epidemiologist Sigrid Carlsson, MD, PhD, who collaborated with the PCF and is a co-author on the NEJM Evidence study. 2026 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.