Dr. Rayford on Racial Risk Stratification in Prostate Cancer

Walter Rayford, MD, PhD, MBA, a urologic oncologist with the Urology Group and associate professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee West Cancer Center, discusses a study aiming to refine racial risk stratification in prostate cancer.

The study used a commercially available cell cycle progression score called Prolaris to improve risk stratification in a community-based patient population. Tissue samples from 150 African-American and 60 Caucasian patients were taken from a single urologic oncology practice.

One of the key findings using this novel tool, Rayford says, was that 24% of African-American patients who were initially classified as normal-risk were actually at a higher risk in terms of disease volume and growth rate. It also re-stratified 50% of normal-risk Caucasian patients to a lower-risk group. Rayford adds that Prolaris also helps to re-stratify patients based on prostate-specific antigen, and Gleason, and Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment scores.

This is useful, Rayford concludes, because it better establishes which patients are eligible for active surveillance and which patients need more aggressive treatment as soon as possible.