Prostate cancer among African American men Essay

Prostate cancer among African American men - Essay Example In essay "Prostate cancer among African American men" author describes the connection between genetics, social status, health and cancer occurrence among Afro-American in the USA. Despite an intensive campaign that is directed to men in order for them to undergo regular medical screening, the majority of them are still reluctant resulting to increased cases of deaths caused by prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is a major type of cancer that affects the reproductive system of males especially those above the age of 45 years. However, there are cases of insistent prostate cancer that results in major complications on the reproductive system. This paper seeks to discuss medical compliance treatment of prostate cancer among African American men. As mentioned earlier, African-American men are at high risk of prostate cancer development. According to the 2003-2007 US medical report, for every 100,000 African American men, 234.6 cases of prostate cancer were reported in the US as compared to 150.4 cases per 100,000 white men. Due to the high number of cases of prostate cancer among the African American men, their mortality rate is more than double as compared to the white men. For example, between 2003 and 2007, 54.2 cases of mortality rates were reported for every 100,000 African-American while only 22.3 cases of mortality rates occurred among the white men. In 2001, more than 31,500 deaths due to prostate cancer were reported. Since 2001, at least 221,000 cases of prostate cancer are reported per year (Chronic Disease Indicators, 2012). One of the major obstacles that are affecting the efforts of the medical personnel is lack of early detection guidelines. In the same way, men are hesitant to screening thus making it difficult to curb the diseases during its early stages. In its endeavor to address the challenges faced by the African American men as far as control of prostate cancer is concerned, American Cancer Society, advocates for adoption of two major strategies . First, it recommends that men at the age of 45 years should emulate digital rectal examination (DRE). Secondly, the society recommends for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test for men who are between the ages of 45 and 50 years. Even though a task force that is concerned with prevention services depicts that there is insufficient evidence on the implications of DRE and PSA on the prevention and control of prostate cancer, the task force argues that a strong relationship between doctors and patients should be maintained to ensure that men are interested in undertaking regular screening. Additionally, the task force maintains that PSA is a better strategy of early detection. However, it is still unclear of how early detection