There is a long-documented history of racial disparities in prostate cancer outcomes, with black men having up to twice the lifetime risk of dying from the disease than white men (Lloyd et al, 2015). Addressing these inequalities in prostate cancer mortality should be a priority for public health. To understand this in more detail, a new analysis has been undertaken by the Data & Evidence team at Prostate Cancer UK (2025). 

The team undertook a population-based analysis of all registered prostate cancer deaths in England between 21 March 2021 and 31 January 2023 using data from the Office for National Statistics (2023). Over this period, there were 26270 registered deaths from prostate cancer in England. The overall age-standardised mortality rate in England during this period was 71.3 per 100000 person-years, reflecting the significant burden of the disease nationally. Mortality was strongly age-related, with men aged 70 years and above accounting for 89% of all prostate cancer deaths in the dataset. This concentration of deaths among older age groups highlights the importance of accounting for age when interpreting mortality trends across different demographic and socioeconomic groups. 

Mortality rates were highest among men from black ethnic backgrounds, followed by white ethnic groups, and lowest in Asian groups (although the smaller sample sizes for these groups mean that these findings need to be interpreted with caution). Compared to white British men, mortality rates from prostate cancer were 1.73 times higher among black Caribbean men (95% confidence interval 1.72–1.73) and 1.28 times higher among black African men (95% confidence interval 1.26–1.30). In contrast, Asian groups had substantially lower mortality rates than white British men, e.g. Indian men had around 39% lower mortality than white British men (rate ratio: 0.61, 95% confidence interval 0.60–0.62).  

Important differences were also seen within major ethnic groups. Relative to black African men, black Caribbean men had 35% higher mortality (rate ratio: 1.35, 95% confidence interval 1.33–1.38). Within Asian groups, Indian men had mortality rates more than twice those of Bangladeshi men (rate ratio: 2.24, 95% confidence interval 1.99–2.50), although mortality rates for smaller subgroups should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample sizes in these groups. 

The report recommends that a key priority is to identify systemic inequities within the healthcare system that contribute to poorer outcomes for black men and men living in areas of high deprivation, and that improving data collection and representation is crucial to provide higher-quality evidence, particularly for UK ethnic minority groups who are often under-represented in healthcare datasets. 

This report confirms that black men in England experience a higher burden of prostate cancer mortality compared to men of other ethnicities. It also highlights that there is large variation in mortality rates within broad ethnic groups, with black Caribbean men consistently having the highest mortality rates from prostate cancer.   

While mortality is highest in the most deprived quintiles, ethnic disparities persisted at every level. The findings show that the increased mortality from prostate cancer seen among black men cannot be explained solely by socioeconomic factors.