ORLANDO, Fla. — When Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings announced his prostate cancer diagnosis, he became part of a grim statistic.
Prostate cancer has long been prevalent among African American men, accounting for 44% of all cancer diagnoses in that group, according to the American Cancer Society.
“It’s something that is huge issue with African American men more than any other race,” said Dr. Corey Hebert, associate professor of health at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
Dr. Hebert said fewer checkups among Black men is one of the reasons that demographic sees higher rates of prostate cancer.
“As African American men, we don’t like to go to the doctor,” he said. “We’re scared of going to get the prostate checked because of multiple reasons. A lot of times, all men, we just don’t like to go because we don’t want to hear anything bad.”
Black men have the highest prostate cancer death rate than any other ethnic group and that’s where early detection comes in.
“Most prostate cancers are not caught early,” Hebert said. “They’re caught once they’ve gotten outside the capsule of the prostate, and that is when you start having the metastasis that people talk about to the bone or to the other colon. That’s when you started having lots of issues.”
The American Cancer Society recommends annual checkups for Black men who are at higher risk or have a family history of prostate cancer. Those checkups include a prostate-specific antigen test or “PSA test,” which measures the amount of protein in the blood that is produced by the prostate.
Recommended screenings should happen between the ages of 40 and 45. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer deaths among Black men dropped by 56% since 1993, thanks in part to early detection and annual screenings.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2026 Cox Media Group
