The influence of race on the efficacy of curative radiation therapy for carcinoma of the prostate.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of race on the outcome of patients treated curatively with external beam irradiation for carcinoma of the prostate. The study was performed between January 1980 and December 1993 of 1,529 men with prostate cancer. Similar percentages of Caucasian men (CM) and African-American men (AAM) had localized disease (stages T1 and T2) and advanced stage disease (stage T3). There was no difference in crude survival by race (P = .13). At 5 years, crude survival by race was 75% for CM and 73% for AAM. At 10 years, the crude survivals, were 50% and 40%, respectively. Disease-specific survival rates were equivalent for AAM and CM (P = .66). The 5-year disease-specific survival was 83% for CM and 85% for AAM. At 10 years, the disease-specific survival was 65% for CM and 69% for AAM. There was no difference in disease-specific survival by race when stage-for-stage comparisons were made. Among those patients referred for curative radiation therapy, AAM and CM had a similar age, stage, and grade distribution. This study demonstrated that there was no difference in disease-specific survival between CM and AAM treated curatively with radiation for prostate cancer.