Even with the same prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, Black men are more likely to have prostate cancer than white men, new research shows. The findings point to the need for earlier and more frequent screening, the researchers noted. It’s already known that Black men in the United States are more likely to develop prostate cancer than their white peers. After diagnosis, they’re also more likely to have advanced disease and to die. The new research suggests that at any PSA level, Black men are more likely to harbor prostate cancer than white men. The research included more than 75,000 Black men and more than 207,000 white men who were receiving care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The researchers used modeling to predict the likelihood of prostate cancer diagnosis from a first biopsy. Prostate cancer was detected in the first biopsy in 55% of Black men and in 43% of white men, the investigators found. After accounting for other factors, Black veterans were 50% more likely to receive a prostate cancer diagnosis based on their first prostate biopsy than white Veterans were, according to the report published online Nov. 6 in the journal CANCER.  Black men with a pre-biopsy PSA of 4.0 ng/mL had a 49% risk of prostate cancer detected during their biopsy. This compared to a 39% risk for white men…  read on >  read on >

The American Cancer Society has expanded its recommendations for who should get lung cancer screening. The updated guidance now says annual screening should start at a younger age and among those who smoke less, and it should continue regardless of how many years ago a former smoker may have quit. “If you are a person who formerly smoked, once 15 years had elapsed since your cessation you were no longer eligible for lung cancer screening on the assumption that your risk had just gotten too low over time to justify screening,” explained Robert Smith, senior vice president for Early Cancer Detection Science at the American Cancer Society (ACS). “When we look at that, actually the continuing absolute risk and people who had a significant number of years of smoking, we found that just wasn’t true,” Smith said. “In fact, your risk declined a little bit after you stopped smoking. Then it flattened out and started increasing again as your age increased, and eventually, rising pretty steeply — about 9% a year if you smoked 20 cigarettes a day.” To address that, screening should now start at age 50 and continue until age 80, the ACS said. In addition, those who have smoked at least 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years or more should be screened; the previous recommendation was 20 cigarettes a day for…  read on >  read on >

Money may not buy happiness, but it can help make life more satisfying, a new U.S. government survey shows. In 2021, just under 5% of U.S. adults said they were “dissatisfied” with their lives. And researchers found those feelings were more common in households making less than 200% of the federal poverty level — or about $55,000 a year for a family of four. Among those relatively lower-income Americans, 8% were dissatisfied with their lives — more than double the rate (3.6%) among people with higher incomes. That dividing line is not surprising, as past studies have found clear relationships between income and life satisfaction. But lead researcher Amanda Ng said another finding was intriguing: There were some disparities in life satisfaction, based on factors like age and race — but only among lower-income Americans. Within that group, white and Black Americans were less happy than Hispanic and Asian Americans. Meanwhile, middle-aged adults (aged 45 to 64) reported more dissatisfaction than either younger or older adults. And people born in the United States were less happy than their counterparts born elsewhere. None of those disparities existed, however, among Americans with relatively higher incomes. “It was pretty striking that we saw none of those differences,” said Ng, a researcher with the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control…  read on >  read on >

More than a year after its launch, public awareness of the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline remains moderate, a new survey found. However, awareness is highest among people who need it most — those in serious psychological distress. Survey participants with serious distress were 45% more likely to have heard of 988 than those with no distress. Further, those in moderate psychological distress were 27% more likely to have heard of 988 than those with no distress. “When we looked across these different psychological distress categories, as you would expect to see and hope to see, the percentage of people using the lifeline was way higher among those with serious psychological distress,” said lead researcher Jonathan Purtle. He is director of policy research at New York University’s Global Center for Implementation Science. The 988 line launched in July 2022, transitioning from the 10-digit 1-800 number of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline into a simpler three-digit number with a broader focus on crisis counseling. To assess awareness of the line, researchers surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. adults in June 2023. “The key innovation of what we did here is we assessed people’s psychological distress,” Purtle said. “We were able to compare folks by their levels of distress and awareness of the lifeline.” Overall, about 42% of poll respondents had heard of the 988 lifeline, a…  read on >  read on >