Abstract A75: Ten-year retrospective cross racial and ethnic prostate cancer incidence and mortality in the Florida Department of Corrections
Authors: Borysova Meghan E. , Ensley David T. , Kumar Nagi B. 
Published: December 2010

To establish a novel environment for elucidating the relative socioenvironmental and biological etiologies of racial and ethnic disparities in prostate cancer, we are conducting a 10-year retrospective cross-racial and ethnic analysis of prostate cancer incidence and mortality within the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC). Prostate Cancer is the most common cancer in men and exhibits the most profound racial and ethnic disparity of all cancers, with a 60% higher incidence rate and an astonishing 140% higher mortality rate in African Americans than in Caucasians. Successful efforts to thwart prostate cancer health disparities depend understanding the relative contributions of biological and socio-behavioral factors on prostate cancer disparities; however, the inherent heterogeneity of a of unlinked factors within and among racial and ethnic groups precludes the effectual determination of the relative contributions of prostate cancer health disparities. We propose that the etiologies of health disparities can be defined within the context of large, racially and ethnically diverse settings in which several variables thought to contribute to prostate cancer health disparities are normalized across racial and ethnic groups. Correctional facilities are vast congregate settings, inherently unique due to the remarkably similar socio-behavioral environments between and within racial and ethnic groups relative to non-incarcerated communities. Prisons are home to over 1.6 million people, primarily African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic men. The FDOC offices of Health Care, Food Services, and Wellness and Recreation provide services that may circuitously reduce racial and ethnic cancer disparities. Prisoners of all races and ethnicities have equal access to free and identical health care services including prostate cancer education, routine prostate cancer screening, and prostate cancer treatment. Inmates are all provided the same nutritionally balanced diets, meeting or exceeding the National Academy of Sciences’ standards, including nutritional supplements, soy-rich products, and nearly 3 million pounds of fresh produce cultivated on FDOC farms; reflecting diets thought to decrease prostate cancer risk. Physical activity in the form of exercise is a regular component of approximately 95% of prisoner's lifestyles. Cigarette smoking is common across racial and ethnic groups in the FDOC; however, alcohol consumption and drug use are prohibited. The FDOC's wellness efforts, and similar efforts by the majority of United States correctional facilities, inadvertently address several conjectural bases of health disparities, thereby providing an environment ripe for distinguishing the factors that contribute to prostate cancer and it vast racial and ethnic disparities. With support and approval by the FDOC, we have begun to elucidate the complex etiologies of racial and ethnic disparities in prostate cancer incidence and mortality by conducting a 10-year, cross-racial and ethnic retrospective analysis of prostate cancer incidence and mortality within the FDOC. The data from this study will provide the foundation for further studies to better understand the socio-environmental and biological factors that contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in prostate cancer incidence and mortality.

Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):A75.