A new study has found that mutations in a specific gene are more common among African-American men who have prostate cancer.
African-American men are disproportionately affected by prostate cancer. They are more likely than white men to get the disease in the first place, and when they do, they are more likely to die from it. But African-American men are under-represented in research studies into prostate cancer.

A rare exception is the Flint Men's Health Study, in which researchers at the University of Michigan are studying prostate cancer risk factors among African-Americans in the surrounding area. They compared 134 men aged 40 to 79 with prostate cancer to a group of 340 who did not have cancer. This shows that mutations in a gene called macrophage scavenger receptor-1 (MSR-1) are more common in men with prostate cancer. This mirrors similar findings on MSR-1 among Caucasian men. The discovery of these gene mutations will be an important starting point for gaining new understanding of prostate cancer.