Keying in on black risk factors Studies of Detroiters seek genetic clues to improving prostate cancer therapies By Kimberly Hayes Taylor The Detroit News Dr. Elisabeth Heath wants to be certain she's doing all she can for her African-American patients with late-stage prostate cancer. Among the nation's researchers who discovered some black men may metabolize some prostate cancer drugs differently than white men, the cancer researcher and late-stage prostate cancer specialist at Detroit's Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute recruited patients for a clinical study on experimental drugs for the disease. She also takes advantage of what she calls a rare opportunity to treat the high number of black prostate cancer patients other top cancer centers in the nation don't have. 'When these national studies are reported, they hardly ever break down the number of African-American men. They are highly underrepresented,' said Heath, who conducted similar research at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, another top-rated cancer research center, before relocating to Metro Detroit. 'Detroit is a robust city with predominately African-Americans here, and we have to be confident what we're offering is right. The only way to be confident is to do the studies.' Its population has made Detroit a hot spot for researchers conducting studies here that would be difficult in other communities. A number of studies are taking place simultaneously, and local cancer advocates are doing all they can to spread the word that early detection is the best measure for saving lives. Detroiter Jerry Jackson, 62, one of Health's patients with incurable prostate cancer, is proud to help out, although he's clear the clinical trial won't save his life. 'This world is made of people trying things, making mistakes and doing it better next time,' says Jackson, who was diagnosed in 2003. 'This clinical trial will help somebody behind me after I'm gone.' Dr. Isaac Powell, a prostate cancer survivor and renowned prostate cancer researcher at Karmanos and Detroit Medical Center, hopes to find men just as enthusiastic as he conducts a clinical trial -- he began seeking recruits earlier this month -- to find whether genetic markers can be detected in early stages of prostate cancer. If successful, his research is expected to help determine which men with early-stage prostate cancer should be treated more aggressively. The Josephine Ford Cancer Center at Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit has developed a $5 million project targeting 4,000 local African-American seniors on Medicare. Augustus Vincent Jr. of Westland is a participant in the study designed to determine if people are assisted in getting screenings, and making and getting to medical appointments will they have better health outcomes. At least 39 new cancer cases have been detected. The study still seeks participants in the study that Dr. Robert Chapman, the center's director, believes will prove people need assistance navigating their health care if disparities are eliminated. 'We have found to a shocking extent that people don't appreciate what they need to do and how important the things they need to do are,' Chapman said. 'They don't understand how important it is to get a PSA, a colonoscopy.' 