Non-Hispanic Black men experience significantly worse prostate cancer outcomes compared to their white counterparts, even after receiving an initial negative biopsy result, according to a new study published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Researchers at Henry Ford Health examined nearly 17,500 men who underwent prostate biopsies between 1995 and 2023. Of these patients, about 30 percent were Non-Hispanic Black. Over a median follow-up period of nearly eight years, stark racial disparities emerged in cancer detection and survival rates.
The findings revealed that Black men faced nearly double the risk across multiple measures. Within 15 years after a negative biopsy, Black men showed cancer diagnosis rates of 15.9 percent compared to 9.5 percent for white men. Clinically significant cancer diagnoses occurred in 10.7 percent of Black patients versus 6.4 percent of white patients.
Most concerning, prostate cancer-specific mortality rates nearly doubled for Black men at 2.4 percent compared to 1.3 percent for white men. Active treatment rates also differed substantially, with 10.4 percent of Black men requiring intervention versus 6.4 percent of white men.
The study controlled for socioeconomic factors using an Area Deprivation Index, which measures neighborhood-level disadvantage based on census data. Despite these adjustments, racial disparities persisted throughout the analysis, with Black men showing hazard ratios approaching 1.9 times higher across all outcomes measured.
These results underscore what researchers describe as the multifaceted impact of racial disparities on prostate cancer prognosis, suggesting that initial negative biopsies do not equalize long-term cancer risk between racial groups.
See: “The Impact of Race on Oncological Outcomes in Patients with an Initial Negative Prostate Biopsy: Results from a Contemporary U.S. Cohort” (February 7, 2026)
