Racial Disparities in Quantitative MRI for African American and White Men with Prostate Cancer

The risk of prostate cancer (PCa) is strongly influenced by race and ethnicity. The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in the diagnostic performance of multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) in African American (AA) and white (W) men. 111 patients (37 AA and 74 W men) were selected from the study’s initial cohort of 885 patients after matching age, prostate-specific antigen, and prostate volume. The diagnostic performance of mpMRI was assessed using detection rates (DRs) and positive predictive values (PPVs) with/without combining K(trans) (volume transfer constant) stratified by prostate zones for AA and W sub-cohorts. The DRs of mpMRI for clinically significant PCa (csPCa) lesions in AA and W sub-cohort with PI-RADS scores ≥ 3 were 67.3% vs. 80.3% in the transition zone (TZ; p=0.026) and 81.2% vs. 76.1% in the peripheral zone (PZ; p>0.9). The K(trans) of csPCa in AA men was significantly higher than in W men (0.23±0.08 min(−1) vs. 0.19±0.07 min(−1); p=0.022). This emphasizes that there are race-related differences in the performance of mpMRI and quantitative MRI measures that are not reflected in age, PSA, and prostate volume.