A new study reveals that men living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods face significantly higher odds of being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, with Non-Hispanic Black men bearing a disproportionate burden of this disparity.
Researchers from multiple institutions analyzed data from over 78,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in Michigan between 2004 and 2022. They used the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), which measures neighborhood socioeconomic status, to examine how poverty impacts cancer outcomes.
The findings show a stark reality: patients living in the most disadvantaged areas were far more likely to present with aggressive disease. For every 10-point increase on the deprivation scale, a man’s odds of having metastatic prostate cancer at diagnosis increased by 4%.
Non-Hispanic Black men, who represented 17% of the study population, were disproportionately concentrated in the most deprived neighborhoods—40.1% compared to just 5.4% in the least deprived areas. These men faced 1.52 times higher odds of metastatic disease compared to Non-Hispanic White men.
“Our study underscores the silent barrier that socioeconomic deprivation poses to cancer early diagnosis,” the researchers noted in their conclusion. The disparities were evident across multiple measures of disease severity, including higher PSA levels, more advanced clinical stage, and higher-grade tumors.
The research echoes growing concerns about how social determinants of health create unequal disease burdens and calls for “tailored interventions to bridge this gap” in prostate cancer care.
See: “Socioeconomic disparities in Prostate Cancer Presentation: The impact of ADI on Prostate Cancer Stage at diagnosis” (August 19, 2025)
