For African-American men, prostate cancer is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Health statistics paint disturbing trends, including that 60 percent of Black males are more likely to develop prostate cancer than any other race. Just as unsettling, African-American men are twice as likely to die of prostate cancer than any other ethnic group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The seriousness of this disparity isn\u2019t lost on a national network of prostate cancer researchers and experts who have joined forces to study prostate cancer in African-American men. The team has received a $26 million grant as part of former Vice President Joe Biden\u2019s Cancer Moonshot Initiative to conduct the largest study ever to look at the underlying factors and reasons that put African-American men at higher risk for developing and dying from prostate cancer. The initiative is called the RESPOND study \u2013 Research on Prostate Cancer in Men of African Ancestry: Defining the Roles of Genetics, Tumor Markers, and Social Stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the next four years, 10,000 African-American men with prostate cancer will be recruited from cancer registries in seven states \u2013 California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and throughout the Detroit Metropolitan area in Michigan. Cancer registries are located in each of the 50 United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLots of people don\u2019t know about cancer registries so when we contact people that we\u2019ve identified through the registry sometimes they are angry,\u201d said Denise Modjeski, the study coordinator for RESPOND at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California Department of Preventive Medicine. \u201cWe tell them it is very complicated process that grants access to the contact data, and it\u2019s all for the greater good. But, of course we honor people\u2019s wishes and if they tell us they don\u2019t want to participate in any study ever, we never contact them again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the RESPOND study counts as a little different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost cancer registries like this only send out \u2018letters of invitation\u2019 to people from the study\u2019s local cancer registry,\u201d Modjeski said. \u201cRESPOND will also include volunteers, which means they can hear about us and either contact us through the website or through our toll-free number.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Volunteers can reach out from all over the country with the only requirement being they identify as African-American or Black and have been diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States from Jan. 1, 2010 or later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Participants will answer a 12-page survey, and if they\u2019re willing, do additional parts of the study which include providing a saliva sample and, or signing a HIPAA form to allow researchers to get a piece of tissue that has been removed and stored at their medical facility. The study isn\u2019t a clinical trial, as researchers aren\u2019t testing any new drug, device, procedure, or protocol. There are no doctor visits required and participants can complete the survey on paper or online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo bring credibility to this important initiative, we are [also] looking for partners willing to lead the way in advocating for this study and cause,\u201d Modjeski said. \u201cWith one in five African-American men developing prostate cancer in their lifetime, we hope this is an issue that resonates with the African-American community and advocacy groups. With your help we can make a difference with research that will have life changing consequences for future generations of African-American men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESPOND officials say they\u2019re not being restrictive with volunteers who reach out, however individuals the team is identifying through the cancer registries will have an upper age limit of 79 at the age of diagnosis. For the participants identified through the registries, researchers are concentrating on diagnosis years of 2015 through 2018. Recruitment is scheduled to begin in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe recruit the people identified through the registries in batches since we can\u2019t handle everyone at one time. We\u2019ll send out about 100 to 200 letters of invitation including the printed survey every couple of months,\u201d Modjeski said. \u201cWe hope that many of the people who receive these letters and surveys from us over the next few years will have already heard about the study.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n