Study to look at hereditary prostate cancer in Blacks

OMAHA — Creighton Uni­versity’s Hereditary Cancer Cen­ter, has received a three-year, $731,278 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the role heredity plays in prostate cancer among Blacks.

“Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States,. Afri­can American men have two times the occurrence of prostate cancer as do Caucasian men and suffer a significantly higher mortality as well,” said Henry Lynch, M.D., principal investigator and Creighton Here­ditary Cancer Center director.

“While it’s estimated that about 10 percent of all prostate cancers have a hereditary link, the problem has been understudied in African Americans. With few exceptions, relatively little is known about the role genetics play in this population,” noted Lynch, holder of the Charles F. and Mary C. Heider En­dowed Chair in Cancer Re­search.

The study will focus on identifying the hereditary factors of the disease that are specific to Blacks.

“The goal is to develop early and intensive screening and prevention management strategies that will decrease African Ameri­cans’ incidence of as well as death rate from hereditary pro­state cancer,” he said.

Jackson State University in Mississippi is collaborating in the study. The goal is to involve 300 Black prostate cancer patients from the Omaha area and about 500 from Jackson, Miss., in the effort.

The research team includes members of Creighton’s Here­ditary Cancer Center; Olúg­bé­miga Ekún­dayò, M.D., associate professor of epidemiology at Jackson State University, and his staff; Sade Kosoko-Lasaki, M. D., associate vice president of Health Sciences Multicultural and Community Af­fairs at Creigh­ton and co-director of the University’s Center for Pro­moting Health and Health Equality; and Paulos Yohannes, M. D., Creighton assistant clinical professor of surgery.

This article originally published in the August 29, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.