• Posted July 16, 2024

Could Living in Poor Neighborhoods Fuel Prostate Cancer in Black Men? Study Says It Might

The stress of living in a poor neighborhood might contribute to higher rates of aggressive prostate cancer in Black men, a new study warns.

Black men are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than white men, and more likely to develop it as well, the researchers noted.

This could be due in part to living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, which is associated with significantly higher activity in genes related to stress, according to the new research.

These genes, activated by extreme hardship or trauma, can set off a cascade of events that increase risk of cancer, researchers explained.

“Our findings suggest an impact of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods -- which more commonly affects African Americans -- on stress-related genetic pathways in the body,” said senior researcher Kathryn Hughes Barry, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“We believe this may increase an individual’s risk of aggressive prostate cancer and contribute to prostate cancer disparities by race,” Barry added in a university news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed 105 stress-related genes in more than 200 Black and white men with prostate cancer. All of the men underwent surgery to remove their prostate at the University of Maryland Medical Center between 1992 and 2021.

The research team used the men’s address at the time of their diagnosis to assess whether they lived in a neighborhood affected by lower income, education and employment.

These poor neighborhoods often are suffering the long-term impact of racial segregation and racist policies like redlining, in which certain neighborhoods were systematically denied mortgage applications or refinancing based on race, researchers said.

The findings agreed with earlier research that found Black men are more likely to live in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The study also found that Black men in these neighborhoods were more likely to have a higher expression of five genes related to inflammation. Increased inflammation has been linked with a higher risk of prostate cancer and a higher risk of aggressive cancer.

The gene that showed the strongest link was HTR6, part of the serotonin pathway that carries messages between the brain and parts of the body. HTR6 also contributes to pathways related to immune response, and various HTR genes have been linked with lethal prostate cancer, researchers noted.

The findings were published July 12 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The researchers are planning a broader follow-up study that will include patient data from across the United States.

“We need to conduct larger studies to investigate the interrelationships of different neighborhood factors, individual-level factors, tumor biology, tumor aggressiveness and patient outcomes to help inform interventions to reduce prostate cancer disparities,” Barry said.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about prostate cancer.

SOURCE: University of Maryland, news release, July 12, 2024