As Steve J. always says, we need to see the original study in
order to be sure about what it said.

It was once thought that black men had a greater genetic
predisposition to prostate cancer than white men.  Now, as I
understand it, that theory is in doubt.  It may just be that
black people, on average, have less access to advanced health
care (or any health care) than whites in the U.S. - which is a
well established fact.

As for survival rates, there are interesting issues there.

One measure of survival is, What percentage of men who are
diagnosed wind up dying of PCa?  That measure is easily biased by
over diagnosis.

But another measure is, What percentage of the population dies of
PCa?  Just take the size of the population and divide by the
number of PCa deaths.  As far as I can see, that measure cannot
be biased by over diagnosis.

I believe that if you use that second measure, the U.S.  comes
out way ahead of, for example, the U.K.

   U.S. population = 300 million, PCa deaths = 25,000 [1]
   U.K. population =  60 million, PCa deaths = 10,000 [2]

[1] http://www.seer.cancer.gov/faststats/selections.php?series=cancer
   All ages and races for the year 2005.
   It was 30,000 just five years before in 2000.

[2] http://www.who.int/whosis/mort/profiles/mort_euro_gbr_unitedkingdom.pdf
   Taken from the World Health Organization report for the year
   2002.

UK deaths rates were *twice* the U.S. rates.

That still doesn't tell us why.  Some possible reasons could be:

1. U.S. cancer treatment is more effective.

2. U.K. men are more at risk due to some environmental factor.

3. U.K. men are more at risk due to some genetic predisposition.

4. U.K men are overall healthier, live longer, and are therefore
more likely to die of cancer, a disease of old age.

I suspect explanation number 1 is the most likely, but I have no
data to back up that suspicion.  I suspect it because PSA testing
is not done routinely in the UK and patients are often not
diagnosed until they are metastatic and beyond curative
treatment.  However, I can say that I'm not alone in having that
suspicion.

   Alan