Taking aim against prostate cancer disparities in African American men
As both a clinician and scientist Kosj Yamoah, MD, PhD, has dedicated his career to increasing access and quality of care for prostate cancer patients, particularly African American men. In this conversation Dr. Yamoah describes the challenges associated with knowing when prostate cancer is likely to be aggressive. And he talks about the increased incidence and mortality among African American prostate cancer patients, touching on causal factors as well as issues around incidence, diagnosis, treatment delivery, treatment response, and outcomes. Kosj Yamoah, MD, PhD, is a radiation oncologist and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute. 1:08 – The biggest challenge clinicians face when treating prostate cancer patients 3:01 – Some of the issues faced by African American prostate cancer patients 5:14 –Disparities and health inequity issues for African American prostate cancer patients 8:25 – On his research into biomarkers for prostate cancer 12:30 – On prospectively validating the effectiveness of Decipher—a genomic test looking at gene expression within tumor tissue to measure its aggressiveness—in African American men 17:06 – His work in West Africa, where “prostate cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death,” as part of the Men of African Descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP) consortium 21:17 – On starting high school at age 7 (!!!) 26:25 – A heartfelt message for cancer survivors and caregivers