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Objectives: To determine whether an education program on prostate cancer could improve awareness and knowledge among African-American men. African-American men have the world's highest incidence of prostate cancer and more than twice the mortality compared with white men. Screening programs for prostate cancer have not been successful in attracting African-American participation. One explanation is a poor awareness and knowledge about the disease among this high-risk population., Methods: We surveyed 900 African-American adults attending prostate cancer education seminars in community settings throughout Illinois between March 1998 and January 2001. Participants were asked to complete a multiple-choice questionnaire on topics related to prostate cancer. The main outcome measures were a change in awareness and knowledge of prostate cancer after the 1-hour educational seminar., Results: The mean survey score improved from 26.0% before the seminar to 73.3% after it (P <0.0001). Every multiple-choice question was answered correctly more often after the seminar than before it. Increasing levels of education and income were associated with higher before and after scores (P <0.001). Men achieved a significantly greater score improvement (mean 48.1%) compared with women (mean 41.1%; P = 0.006). Previous screening for prostate cancer was reported by 23% of the participants. Using logistic regression analyses, higher levels of education and income correlated with higher rates of screening. After the seminar, 63.1% stated the intention to undergo screening., Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that prostate cancer awareness and knowledge can improve dramatically after a 1-hour seminar on the topic. Additional studies to evaluate the long-term retention of knowledge and impact on behavior are warranted.

Objectives: As the incidence of prostate cancer in the United States exceeds 330,000 in 1997, increasingly more men are faced with treatment choices for which there is no clear approach. At every stage of disease, these treatment choices may involve clinically equivalent modalities that differ in side effects and impact upon quality of life (QOL). Comprehensive, yet efficient, questionnaires are needed to measure QOL in patients with prostate cancer., Methods: Developed as a disease-specific adjunct to the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) measurement system, a 12-item prostate cancer subscale (PCS) was developed and tested in three independent samples: a subscale development sample (n = 43), validity sample 1 (n = 34), and validity sample 2 (n = 96). The 12 items ask about symptoms and problems specific to prostate cancer. These questions are added to the general (FACT-G) instrument, thereby comprising a 47-item questionnaire., Results: Internal consistency of the PCS ranged from 0.65 to 0.69, with coefficients for FACT-G subscales and aggregated scores ranging from 0.61 to 0.90. Concurrent validity was confirmed by the ability to discriminate patients by disease stage, performance status, and baseline prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level. Sensitivity to change in performance status and PSA score over a 2-month period suggested that some subscales of the FACT-Prostate (P) (including the PCS) are sensitive to meaningful clinical change., Conclusions: Our findings support use of the FACT-P as a meaningful component of QOL evaluation in men undergoing therapy for prostate cancer.