PSA levels may be more predictive of prostate cancer risk in African-American men than in Caucasian men with a family history of prostate cancer, according to a new study.

During the course of the study, researchers at the University of Chicago observed 646 high-risk men aged 35 to 69 years, 63 percent of whom were African-American.

They then analyzed men with the PSA level between 1.5 to 4 ng/mL, and who had at least one follow-up visit, and found that three-year prediction for prostate cancer was higher in African-American men compared their European-American counterparts.

“African-American men and men with a family history of prostate cancer should be encouraged to participate in early detection studies to define personalized screening strategies that may diagnose prostate cancer at a curable point,” says Dr. Veda Giri, director of the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

The researchers caution that larger studies with longer follow-up are still needed to confirm these findings.

The paper was published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.