Researchers will investigate environmental and genetic factors related to aggressiveness of prostate cancer in African-American men.

The largest coordinated research effort to study biological and non-biological factors associated with aggressive prostate cancer in African-American men has begun. The $26.5 million study is called RESPOND, or Research on Prostate Cancer in Men of African Ancestry: Defining the Roles of Genetics, Tumor Markers, and Social Stress. It will investigate environmental and genetic factors related to aggressiveness of prostate cancer in African-American men to better understand why they disproportionally experience aggressive disease — that is, disease that grows and spreads quickly — compared with men of other racial and ethnic groups.