Researchers identify cause for Prostate Cancer treatment resistance among African-American men

UK Researchers at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) recently demonstrated that mitochondrial dysfunction may help explain the greater incidence of prostate cancer and poorer responses to conventional therapies in African American men. Such findings suggest that restoring proper mitochondrial function may be a novel therapeutic avenue to reduce such disparities.
he most commonly diagnosed cancer among African American men is prostate cancer, accounting for 31% of all cancers. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, African American men are more likely than Caucasian men to develop the malignancy and 2.4 times more likely to die from it, as they respond poorly to current therapies. The underlying causal mechanisms are still undefined, but researchers suspect that it is due to a combination of genetic differences, medical care, and lifestyle. More recently, mitochondrial dysfunction has also been identified as a possible key factor. “In an earlier study, we provided the first evidence that African-American men possess reduced levels of mitochondrial genetic material in healthy prostate tissues, compared to Caucasian-American men. This new study highlights the importance of mitochondrial dysfunction as one of the main reasons for prostate cancer health disparities.”