Trends in Prostate Cancer Mortality among Black Men and White Men in the United States

*This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America. BACKGROUND. Prostate cancer mortality rates in the United States declined sharply after 1991 in white men and declined after 1992 in black men. The current study was conducted to investigate possible mechanisms for the declining prostate cancer mortality rates in the United States. METHODS. The authors examined and compared patterns of prostate cancer inci-dence, survival rates, and mortality rates among black men and white men in the United States using the 1969 –1999 U.S. prostate cancer mortality rates and the 1975–1999 prostate cancer incidence, survival, and incidence-based mortality rates from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program for the U.S. population. The SEER data represent approximately 10 % of the U.S. population. RESULTS. Prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates showed transient increases after 1986, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use o