A new study that evaluated 20,000 patients with several types of cancer has found that African-American men and women are more likely to die of their cancers even when they receive equal care. Included in this study were men with prostate cancer.

Previously, much of the focus on why African-Americans had higher mortality rates from cancer had been on disparities in the availability or quality of health care. The results of this study suggest that, even when care is equal across racial/ethnic boundaries, African-Americans still tend to have a higher chance of dying from their cancer.

More research will need to be done to determine what exactly accounts for the difference in cancer mortality rates that exists, but this research offers some interesting insights at the very least.

The full study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by scientists from Loyola University.

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The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nutrition and food industry watchdog organization, has been openly critical as of late of an ad for Bayer's One-A-Day Men's Vitamins.

The point of contention comes when the vitamin commercial, regarding prostate cancer, states: "Now there's something that you can do that may help reduce your risk. Along with your regular doctor checkups, switch to One-A-Day Men's, a complete multivitamin plus selenium, which emerging research suggests may reduce the risk of prostate cancer."

The CSPI and other organizations are finding issue with this statement because of a large government-sponsored study involving 35,000 men which showed no decreased risk of prostate cancer in men taking selenium.

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New research has shown that capsules containing polyphenols, extracts derived from green tea, might be able to slow down the progression of prostate cancer.

In the study, 26 men with diagnosed prostate cancer were given four capsules of polyphenols per day for one month. At the end of the month, the men had lower levels of three proteins that are known to increase the growth rate of tumors.

While the green tea capsules resulted in lower levels of these proteins and thus would, theoretically, slow down the growth of prostate cancer, it's not clear if tumors would actually shrink or would just grow slower than normal.

Either way, this is a very interesting development. Hopefully we'll see more and more positive research such as this.

Recent analysis of data comparing prostate cancer death rates across Britain has uncovered that prostate cancer mortality can differ by nearly 5 times from one constituency to the next.

This has led politicians and others in Britain to label the apparent disparity a 'Post Code Lottery' in reference to the fact that, seemingly, men lucky enough to live in a certain postal code may have much improved chances of surviving their prostate cancer when compared to men unlucky enough to live in a different postal code.

No one is quite sure as to what the true cause of these large geographic disparities is, but plenty of people are weighing in with their opinions and the whole thing has caused quite a stir in the UK. Several politicians and other national leaders have used the news to offer their own prescriptions for fixing the problem (and for fixing healthcare in general).

Interestingly, studies like this one have been done in the United States and elsewhere with similarly startling results showing large differences in prostate cancer mortality from one geographic area to the next.

A new test that analyzes a set of 6 genes in an attempt to predict which men will have prostate cancer has shown promising early results. By comparing 76 healthy men with 76 men with prostate cancer, researchers came up with a set of 6 genes that show different activity in prostate cancer patients than they do in healthy patients.

The researchers then used those 6 genes to try and predict which men, out of a group of 222 men, had prostate cancer and which did not. The test correctly detected 86% of men with prostate cancer.

The developers of the test feel that the gene test used in conjunction with more standard prostate cancer detection methods, such the PSA test and digital rectal exam, will result in improved cancer detection rates.

One limitation to the test, similar to a limitation with the PSA test, is that it does not allow for a distinction between a prostate cancer which is aggressive, extremely dangerous, and in need of prompt treatment and a more benign, slow-growing prostate cancer that could possibly be watched instead of actively treated.

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A recent study has shown that, while men seem to become less anxious about the possibility of prostate cancer recurrence following treatment, their wives or girlfriends continue to worry well into the future.

The research, published by doctors from Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, seems to show that men who have been treated for prostate cancer, more often than not, return to a near-baseline level of worry about their disease once their treatment has ended. The wives or long-term girlfriends of these men, however, continue to have high levels of anxiety about recurrence that do not subside after treatment has ended.

In my experience, this seems to be partly true. Many men seem to return to their baseline quite quickly following prostate cancer treatment. They often just "want to get back to normal" and choose to avoid talking, reading, or perseverating about their cancer. Many wives, however, view the situation differently and continue to pour a great deal of energy, time, and worry into their husbands' conditions.

I'm not completely convinced that men actually do return to a baseline level of anxiety, however. I suspect that many men are just as anxious as their wives, but don't choose to think about it or discuss it.

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Safeway, the giant food and drug retailer, has just launched their 9th annual month-long campaign to support prostate cancer research.

Each June, Safeway dedicates an entire month to supporting prostate cancer research. During June, shoppers at Safeway or affiliated stores (such as Dominick's, Tom Thumb, Vons, and others) can opt to donate at checkout time to prostate cancer research efforts.

Over the past 9 years, Safeway's efforts have raised more than $40 million for prostate cancer research.

Numerous institutions around the United States receive grants to fund prostate cancer research because of the Safeway fundraising efforts.

Will an over-the-counter prostate cancer test soon be available?

Researchers from the University of Central Florida and MD Anderson Orlando recently announced their development of just such a test. The test is not yet ready to be sold to the general public, but may be in the next few years.

The test purportedly uses a simpler and quicker method for detecting certain proteins in the blood. The idea is that any man who has taken the at-home test and received a "positive" result would then go to see their doctor to receive the standard PSA test and physical exam.

Because many men do not have health insurance, the researchers speculate that there would be plenty of demand for a relatively inexpensive, at-home exam.

Cougar Biotechnology, a developer of several experimental compounds used to treat such cancers as prostate cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma, is set to be sold to Johnson and Johnson.

This likely won't mean a whole lot in the near future in terms of new prostate cancer treatments being released, but when a very large biotech company buys a smaller one it is often because the smaller company has some promising products in development.

Hopefully, this acquisition will result in broader and swifter prostate cancer treatment development.

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An 8-month old baby in Britain was diagnosed with prostate cancer recently. Obviously, this is not the typical age for prostate cancer, which is more common with increasing age and generally only afflicts men over the age of 40.

No reports have yet detailed what type of prostate cancer the infant has, but it is very unlikely that it is adenocarcinoma (by far the most common type of prostate cancer in older men). It is more likely to be a rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a much more common cancer in children.

News reports that I have seen have tended to emphasize that this baby is likely the youngest prostate cancer patient ever (which may or may not be true), but rhabdomyosarcoma and other childhood cancers are not completely unheard of and they can start in many different sites in the body - including the prostate. In fact, I know surgeons who have had to perform prostatectomies on children due to cancers such as this.

In case you're wondering, prostate rhabdomyosarcoma in small children is usually treated with radiation and chemotherapy first to decrease the size of the tumor, then, if any cancer remains, the prostate and surrounding tissue is surgically removed.