PROSTATE CANCER AWARENESS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN

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DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Description) Prostate cancer is the most common solid tumor and the second most common cause of death in American men. It poses a particular risk for African American (AA) men who, compared to Caucasian men, are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease, more likely to present with advanced disease and more likely to die from their disease. Although newer tests improve early detection, the value of screening asymptomatic men remains unknown and health care providers may be unsure of what to recommend or how to discuss this disease with their patients. Until randomized studies are completed, the decision about testing should remain personalized. However, there is evidence that AA men have less information and more misconceptions about prostate cancer, thereby making informed choices difficult. In response to this problem, the proposed initiative will develop and disseminate unbiased state-of-the-art prostate cancer education to lower income African Americans and their health care providers. This program will be dynamic in nature; it will be continuously updated as new data become available. The long term goal is neither to encourage nor discourage routine screening, but rather to promote and facilitate informed discussion between men and their health care providers with the goal of enabling AA men to make truly informed choices about prostate health care. The specific aims are: (1) To refine, implement and test the effectiveness of a Prostate Cancer Education program for African American communities in Illinois; the goal of the proposal is to increase understanding, therefore evaluation will focus on increase in knowledge, (2) To provide state-of-the-art prostate cancer information to health care providers serving these lower income African American communities; information dissemination will include seminars delivered by the Principal Investigator, distribution of seminar summary, and newsletter updates, and (3) To establish the mechanisms and provide the resources for continuation of the program after the grant period.