Minorities Less Likely to Undergo MRI After Elevated PSA Test

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 17, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Black and Hispanic men are significantly less likely than White men to receive prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after receiving an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test score, according to a study published online Nov. 8 in JAMA Network Open.

Nino Abashidze, Ph.D., from the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and colleagues analyzed data from 794,809 commercially insured men undergoing a PSA test (2011 to 2017) to examine racial and ethnic disparities in patients undergoing prostate MRI after receiving an elevated PSA test result.

The researchers found that compared with White patients, Black patients with PSA levels >4 ng/mL and >10 ng/mL were less likely to undergo subsequent prostate MRI (odds ratios [ORs], 0.78 and 0.65, respectively). Similar findings were seen for older Black patients (ages 65 to 74 years) with PSA >4 ng/mL and >10 ng/mL (ORs, 0.76 and 0.56, respectively). Subsequent prostate MRI was also less likely among Asian patients with PSA levels >4 ng/mL (OR, 0.76) and Hispanic patients with PSA levels >10 ng/mL (OR, 0.77) compared with White patients. There was no association between race and ethnicity and mean time between PSA and MRI.

“These results suggest that racial and ethnic disparities exist in the use of subsequent prostate magnetic resonance imaging, highlighting a need to better understand and mitigate physician decision-making biases and other potential sources of the disparities in the identification and management of prostate cancer,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text