Study suggests prostate cancer rate jumped due to improved detection .
Study suggests prostate cancer rate jumped due to improved detection When cases of prostate cancer rose in the last two decades, more accessible testing and early detection most likely prompted the increase in incidence, Keck School researchers recently reported. With their education and affluence, men of high socioeconomic status are more likely to benefit from improvements in disease detection, treatments and knowledge of risk factors. Using data from the Los Angeles Cancer Surveillance Program, preventive medicine researchers examined about 83,000 invasive prostate cancer cases reported in Los Angeles County from 1972 to 1997. They estimated each patient's socioeconomic status based on income and education statistics for the Census tract in which the patient lived at time of diagnosis. From 1972 to 1987, before PSA testing, researchers found no relationship between patients' socioeconomic status and the prostate cancer incidence rate, regardless of race or ethnicity.