Distribution of Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC) and Risk of Prostate Cancer in Barbados, West Indies

Blood typing across different racial groups has revealed that Caucasians predominantly test positive for the Duffy antigen/receptor for chemokines (DARC), while 70–95 % of African-origin populations lack expression of DARC on their erythrocytes. Since men of African descent are known to have higher rates of prostate cancer (PC) and some animal studies have indicated anti-angiogenic effects associated with Duffy-positive mice, DARC-negativity may help to explain some of the racial differences in prostate tumorigenesis. The Prostate Cancer in a Black Population (PCBP) Study, a large case–control investigation including 1,007 incident PC cases and 1,005 controls, performed DARC testing on a subset of 1,295 participants (641 cases, 654 controls). The relationship between DARC expressivity and PC risk was evaluated using logistic regression models and findings are presented as odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals. More than three-quarters (76.5 %) of African-Barbadian men lacked DARC expression, whereas almost three-fifths (59.3 %) of White participants tested positive for the Duffy a and b alleles. DARC-negativity was not found to be associated with PC risk in the present investigation [OR 1.04, 95 % CI (0.78, 1.37)], regardless of tumor grade. Findings from the PCBP study indicate that the majority of African-Barbadian men do not express DARC on their erythrocytes, yet absence of expression does not appear to be associated with PC development in this population.