Leading cancer charity launches new research drive to close Black men’s prostate cancer gap

Leading UK charity Prostate Cancer Research has announced £1.3 million funding for another round of groundbreaking research to investigate why prostate cancer hits Black men harder and tackle the stark racial inequities experienced by Black communities.

Prostate cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK, with 63,000 people diagnosed each year, around 170 every day. Black men face a disproportionately high risk: they are twice as likely to be diagnosed with, and to die from, prostate cancer compared to white men. While 1 in 8 white men will be diagnosed during their lifetime, the figure rises to 1 in 4 for Black men, compared with 1 in 13 for men of other ethnicities.

Through its Racial Disparities Grant Programme, Prostate Cancer Research is funding four pioneering projects designed to better understand the causes of this disparity and identify solutions that can improve outcomes for Black men.

The Racial Disparities Grant Call funded the following :

Dr Deyana Lewis at Morehouse School of Medicine (USA) who will investigate whether a gene more common in people of African ancestry contributes to the higher incidence of aggressive prostate cancer in African American men.

Dr Floor Christie-de Jong at the University of Sunderland who will test whether co‑developed community workshops encourage earlier prostate cancer checks among Black men and help reduce late diagnoses.

Professor Mieke Van Hemelrijck and Dr Louis Fox at King’s College London who will map where disparities occur in the healthcare pathway and work directly with Black men to identify and remove barriers to receiving timely, appropriate care.

Professor David Wedge at the University of Manchester who will use advanced DNA sequencing technology to study cancer samples from Jamaica and the UK, uncovering how prostate cancer develops in Black men.

This funding follows the recent publication of Prostate Cancer Research’s Empowering Communities report exploring the reasons behind low levels of trust in healthcare and research among Black communities. Developed in close collaboration with Black community members and experts, the report sets out practical recommendations for building trust.

Dr Naomi Elster, Director of Foundational Research and Communities at Prostate Cancer Research, said:

“When we first created our Racial Disparities Research Programme, far too many Black men were getting prostate cancer, and far too few pounds were being spent on doing anything about it.

We committed we would run at least three rounds of the Racial Disparities Research Programme as part of our pledge to double our funding for research, and round 2 attracted even more scientists, bringing even more ambitious ideas.

We want to fix the problem, but we can’t go in blind: we need to know so much more about biology, injustices in society, and how biology and injustice affect each other before we can really close the gap. Research is vital for us to get the answers we need.”

Projects were selected by scientific experts alongside panels of Black people in the UK who had been affected by prostate cancer, ensuring lived experience was central to decision‑making. Brian Quaver, Chair of our Patient Panel, explained why meaningful involvement from the Black community is so important:

“I think it’s vital for the Black community to be involved in research projects to help understand,  not only the disparities in Black people being diagnosed with prostate cancer, but also the inequalities faced within the healthcare sector in having treatment.

Projects that involve the Black community and directly target people from the community will help break down the barriers of trust in research.

Involving people from the Black community in the project selection process throughout shows how valued and important their contributions are to things which directly affect individuals’ families and the Black community as a whole. ”

This latest round of funding forms part of Prostate Cancer Research’s ongoing, long-term commitment to reducing the inequities faced by Black men with prostate cancer. Research previously funded by the programme has co-developed workshops to address barriers to early diagnosis in Black men, identified potential genetic drivers of disparities, and explored the role of the immune system. This new round of funding takes the charity’s investment into racial disparities research to £2million. Prostate Cancer Research was also behind the multi-award-winning Real Talk awareness campaign, backed by footballer Clinton Morrison and comedian Aurie Styla, which asked Black men to pledge to have a real talk about getting the PSA test. The charity is currently campaigning for prostate cancer screening for men at higher-risk.

ENDS

Images of researchers and further information on individual projects are available on request.

For more information or to request an interview please contact the Prostate Cancer Research press office at [email protected].

About Prostate Cancer Research:

Prostate Cancer Research is a patient-centric research and information provision charity dedicated to improving and saving the lives of people with prostate cancer. As well as working towards greater equity, access to and parity of care, they fund innovative research projects at world-leading institutions that are working towards breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. This includes research into tackling health inequities, improving current treatments and developing novel drug targets. The charity also supports translational research to ensure any breakthroughs have a greater chance of reaching the patients who need them. Over the past two years, they have more than trebled their research, established the Infopool, an educational website to support and empower patients and launched Prostate Progress, the UK’s first patient-centric data platform powered by NHS data.

For more information, please visit: www.pcr.org.uk