Presence of circulating prostate cancer cells in African American males adversely affects survival

African-Americans (AAM) with prostate cancer are more likely to relapse than Caucasian-Americans (CAM) despite controlling for known prognostic factors. One explanation may be that micrometastatic disease in AAM behaves more aggressively than in CAM. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction amplification of the Prostatic Specific Antigen-mRNA (RTPCR PSA-mRNA) results from peripheral blood samples of AAM and CAM with respect to disease outcome. We evaluated the peripheral blood of 246 consecutive patients at the time of radical prostatectomy. The RTPCR PSA-mRNA test for determination of circulating prostate cancer cells was performed. The results were stratified by races and correlated with standard clinico-pathological variables and disease free survival. 27% and 23% of AAM and CAM patients were RTPCR PSA-mRNA positive, respectively. The RTPCR PSA-mRNA status correlated with the pathologic stage in CAM but not in AAM, (p=0.05). There was no association with Gleason score, PSA level, or clinical stage with the RTPCR PSA-mRNA status in either group. AAM with organ-confined prostate cancer were marginally more likely to have circulating prostate cells than similarly staged CAM (24% vs. 17%). In AAM but not CAM who had prostate cancer, the RTPCR PSA-mRNA status correlated with and was an independent predictor of disease-free survival. Our data suggests that, though the likelihood of having circulating prostate cells is the same in AAM and CAM, the presence of circulating prostate cells in AAM is predictive of a worse outcome. This may partially explain the worse prognosis in AAM vs. CAM with clinically localized prostate cancer.