title: Korean prostate cancer patients have worse disease characteristics than their American counterparts.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although the PSA test has been used in Korea for over 20 years, the incidence of prostate cancer has risen, and the associated mortality has increased about 13-fold over the 20-year period. Also, several investigators have suggested that Asians in America are more likely to present with more advanced prostate cancer than Caucasians. We compared the characteristics of native Koreans and Americans (Caucasians and African- Americans) undergoing radical prostatectomies in Korea and the US.
  
  
  METHODS
  Study subjects comprised patients at Korean and US hospitals from 2004 to 2012 who had undergone radical prostatectomies. We compared the characteristics of the subjects, including age, preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, body mass index (BMI), Gleason score, and pathological T stage.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 1,159 males (502 Koreans, 657 Americans) were included. The Korean and American patients had mean ages of 67.1 ± 6.6 and 59.2 ± 6.7 years, respectively. The mean preoperative PSAs were 15.4 ± 17.9 and 6.2 ± 4.6 ng/mL (p=0.0001) and the mean BMIs were 23.6 ± 2.6 and 28.7 ± 4.4 kg/m2 (p=0.0001), respectively. Pathological localized prostate cancer represented 71.7% of cases for Koreans and 77.6% for Americans (p=0.07). According to age, Koreans had higher T stages than Americans in their 50s (p=0.021) and higher Gleason scores than Americans in all age groups. According to PSA, Koreans had higher Gleason scores than Americans for PSA >10 ng/mL (p<0.05). According to prostate size and Gleason scores, Koreans had higher PSA values than Americans (p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results show that Korean patients have elevated risk of malignant prostate cancers, as indicated by the significantly higher Gleason scores and PSAs, suggesting a need for novel prostate cancer treatment strategies in Korea.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Inje University School of Medicine, Korea E-mail : urokang@lycos.co.kr.
authors.forename: Dong Il
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Jae Il
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Hong Koo
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Kweonsik
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: Jangho
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Wansuk
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Won Ik
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Pil moon
authors.initials: Pm
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Soo Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Isaac Yi
authors.initials: IY
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology*; D044383:Black People / Q000208:ethnology*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood; D011468:Prostatectomy; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology*; D001741:Black or African American
chemical_list: D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen