Abstract
Background
We sought to evaluate prostate cancer (PCa) characteristics and outcomes of Hispanics living in the United States by country of origin in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program.
Methods
Retrospective analysis of 72,134 adult Hispanics with PCa between 1995 and 2014. Origin was Mexican (N = 16,995; 24%), South/Central American (N = 6949; 10%), Puerto Rican (N = 3582; 5%), Cuban (N = 2587; 4%), Dominican (N = 725; 1%), Hispanic not specified (NOS, N = 41,296; 57%), as coded by SEER. Patient and PCa characteristics were analyzed with chi-square and Kruskal–Wallis tests. Overall and PCa survival were analyzed with Kaplan–Meier and Cox models adjusting for baseline variables.
Results
At diagnosis, Mexicans had more advanced stage, higher prostate-specific antigen, and higher Gleason score while Cubans and Dominicans had more favorable PCa at diagnosis (all P < 0.05). After a median follow-up of 69 months, 20,317 men died, including 6223 PCa deaths. Compared to Mexicans, Cubans (HR = 1.22, 95% CI = [1.14–1.30]) and Puerto Ricans (HR = 1.15 [1.08–1.22]) had worse overall survival while Dominicans (HR = 0.76 [0.64–0.91]), South/Central Americans (HR = 0.68 [0.65–0.72]), and NOS (HR = 0.81 [0.78–0.84]) had better overall survival. Compared to Mexicans, Cubans (HR = 1.08 [0.96–1.22]) and Puerto Ricans (HR = 1.03 [0.92–1.15]) had similar PCa survival while Dominicans (HR = 0.72 [0.53–0.98]), South/Central Americans (HR = 0.67 [0.60–0.74]), and NOS (HR = 0.68 [0.64–0.73]) had significantly better PCa survival.
Conclusions
Among Hispanics in the United States, disparities in PCa characteristics and survival by country of origin exist, with Dominicans, South/Central Americans, and Hispanic NOS having better PCa survival compared to Mexicans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 6 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $43.17 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout


Similar content being viewed by others
References
Clegg LX, Reichman ME, Hankey BF, Miller BA, Lin YD, Johnson NJ, et al. Quality of race, Hispanic ethnicity, and immigrant status in population-based cancer registry data: implications for health disparity studies. Cancer Causes Control. 2007;18:177–87.
Bryc K, Velez C, Karafet T, Moreno-Estrada A, Reynolds A, Auton A, et al. Colloquium paper: genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture among Hispanic/Latino populations. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2010;107(Suppl 2):8954–61.
Siegel RL, Fedewa SA, Miller KD, Goding-Sauer A, Pinheiro PS, Martinez-Tyson D, et al. Cancer statistics for Hispanics/Latinos, 2015. CA Cancer J Clin. 2015;65:457–80.
Hoffman RM, Gilliland FD, Eley JW, Harlan LC, Stephenson RA, Stanford JL, et al. Racial and ethnic differences in advanced-stage prostate cancer: the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2001;93:388–95.
Bernard B, Muralidhar V, Chen YH, Sridhar SS, Mitchell EP, Pettaway CA, et al. Impact of ethnicity on the outcome of men with metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Cancer. 2017;123;1536–44.
Gorin SS, Heck JE. Cancer screening among Latino subgroups in the United States. Prev Med. 2005;40:515–26.
Han PK, Kobrin S, Breen N, Joseph DA, Li J, Frosch DL, et al. National evidence on the use of shared decision making in prostate-specific antigen screening. Ann Fam Med. 2013;11:306–14.
Moses KA, Orom H, Brasel A, Gaddy J, Underwood W III. Racial/ethnic differences in the relative risk of receipt of specific treatment among men with prostate cancer. Urol Oncol. 2016;34:415 e417–415 e412.
Underwood W, De Monner S, Ubel P, Fagerlin A, Sanda MG, Wei JT. Racial/ethnic disparities in the treatment of localized/regional prostate cancer. J Urol. 2004;171:1504–7.
Hayn MH, Orom H, Shavers VL, Sanda MG, Glasgow M, Mohler JL, et al. Racial/ethnic differences in receipt of pelvic lymph node dissection among men with localized/regional prostate cancer. Cancer. 2011;117:4651–8.
Pitman M, Korets R, Kates M, Hruby GW, McKiernan JM. Socioeconomic and clinical factors influence the interval between positive prostate biopsy and radical prostatectomy. Urology. 2012;80:1027–32.
Pinheiro PS, Sherman RL, Trapido EJ, Fleming LE, Huang Y, Gomez-Marin O, et al. Cancer incidence in first generation U.S. Hispanics: Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and new Latinos. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev. 2009;18:2162–9.
Chao GF, Krishna N, Aizer AA, Dalela D, Hanske J, Li H, et al. Asian Americans and prostate cancer: a nationwide population-based analysis. Urol Oncol. 2016;34:233 e237–215.
Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program Populations (1969–2015) (www.seer.cancer.gov/popdata), National Cancer Institute, DCCPS, Surveillance Research Program, released December 2016.
Stern MC, Fejerman L, Das R, Setiawan VW, Cruz-Correa MR, Perez-Stable EJ, et al. Variability in cancer risk and outcomes within US Latinos by national origin and genetic ancestry. Curr Epidemiol Rep. 2016;3:181–90.
Gonzalez Burchard E, Borrell LN, Choudhry S, Naqvi M, Tsai HJ, Rodriguez-Santana JR, et al. Latino populations: a unique opportunity for the study of race, genetics, and social environment in epidemiological research. Am J Public Health. 2005;95:2161–8.
Sierra MS, Soerjomataram I, Forman D. Prostate cancer burden in Central and South America. Cancer Epidemiol. 2016;44(Suppl 1):S131–40.
Jani AB, Vaida F, Hanks G, Asbell S, Sartor O, Moul JW, et al. Changing face and different countenances of prostate cancer: racial and geographic differences in prostate-specific antigen (PSA), stage, and grade trends in the PSA era. Int J Cancer. 2001;96:363–71.
Morton RA Jr. Racial differences in adenocarcinoma of the prostate in North American men. Urology. 1994;44:637–45.
Thompson I, Tangen C, Tolcher A, Crawford E, Eisenberger M, Moinpour C. Association of African-American ethnic background with survival in men with metastatic prostate cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2001;93:219–25.
Dobbs RW, Greenwald DT, Wadhwa H, Freeman VL, Abern MR. Is prostate cancer stage migration continuing for black men in the PSA era? Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 2017;20:210–5.
Welch HG, Albertsen PC. Prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment after the introduction of prostate-specific antigen screening: 1986-2005. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2009;101:1325–9.
Dobbs RW, Malhotra NR, Caldwell BM, Rojas R, Moreira DM, Abern MR. Determinants of clinic absenteeism: a novel method of examining distance from clinic and transportation. J Community Health. 2018;43:19–26.
Harmon BE, Little MA, Woekel ED, Ettienne R, Long CR, Wilkens LR, et al. Ethnic differences and predictors of colonoscopy, prostate-specific antigen, and mammography screening participation in the multiethnic cohort. Cancer Epidemiol. 2014;38:162–7.
Ilunga Tshiswaka D, Donley T, Okafor A, Memiah P, Mbizo J. Prostate and colorectal cancer screening uptake among US and foreign-born males: evidence from the 2015 NHIS Survey. J Community Health. 42;612–23:2017.
Glenn BA, Bastani R, Maxwell AE, Mojica CM, Herrmann AK, Gallardo NV, et al. Prostate cancer screening among ethnically diverse first-degree relatives of prostate cancer cases. Health Psychol. 2012;31:562–70.
Talavera GA, Ramirez AG, Suarez L, Villarreal R, Marti J, Trapido E, et al. Predictors of digital rectal examination in U.S. Latinos. Am J Prev Med. 2002;22:36–41.
Krongrad A, Lai H, Burke MA, Goodkin K, Lai S. Marriage and mortality in prostate cancer. J Urol. 1996;156:1696–1670.
Tingen MS, Weinrich SP, Heydt DD, Boyd MD, Weinrich MC. Perceived benefits: a predictor of participation in prostate cancer screening. Cancer Nurs. 1998;21:349–57.
Freeman VL, Ricardo AC, Campbell RT, Barrett RE, Warnecke RB. Association of census tract-level socioeconomic status with disparities in prostate cancer-specific survival. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev. 2011;20:2150–9.
Whittemore AS, Kolonel LN, Wu AH, John EM, Gallagher RP, Howe GR, et al. Prostate cancer in relation to diet, physical activity, and body size in blacks, whites, and Asians in the United States and Canada. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1995;87:652–61.
Freedland SJ, Aronson WJ, Kane CJ, Presti JC Jr, Amling CL, Elashoff D, et al. Impact of obesity on biochemical control after radical prostatectomy for clinically localized prostate cancer: a report by the Shared Equal Access Regional Cancer Hospital database study group. J Clin Oncol. 2004;22:446–53.
Hernandez J, Thompson IM. Prostate-specific antigen: a review of the validation of the most commonly used cancer biomarker. Cancer. 2004;101:894–904.
Pinheiro PS, Morris CR, Liu L, Bungum TJ, Altekruse SF. The impact of follow-up type and missed deaths on population-based cancer survival studies for Hispanics and Asians. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr. 2014;2014:210–7.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dobbs, R.W., Malhotra, N.R., Abern, M.R. et al. Prostate cancer disparities in Hispanics by country of origin: a nationwide population-based analysis. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 22, 159–167 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-018-0097-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-018-0097-y
This article is cited by
-
A panel of four autoantibodies to tumour-associated antigens in patients with prostate cancer and its potential for multi-cancer detection
British Journal of Cancer (2025)
-
The effect of cultural and linguistic diversity on the timeliness of prostate cancer treatment: a registry-based retrospective cohort study
Cancer Causes & Control (2025)
-
Patterns of Care and Treatment Outcomes Among Men Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds: A Scoping Review
Current Oncology Reports (2025)
-
Localized prostate cancer disparities in risk group at presentation and access to treatment for Hispanic men
Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases (2023)
-
Disparities in germline testing among racial minorities with prostate cancer
Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases (2022)


