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Prostate cancer (PrCA) is the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer among men. PrCA mortality in African-American (AA) men in South Carolina is ~50% higher than for AAs in the U.S as a whole. AA men also have low rates of participation in cancer research. This paper describes partnership development and recruitment efforts of a Community-Academic-Clinical research team for a PrCA education intervention with AA men and women that was designed to address the discordance between high rates of PrCA mortality and limited participation in cancer research. Guided by Vesey's framework on recruitment and retention of minority groups in research, recruitment strategies were selected and implemented following multiple brainstorming sessions with partners having established community relationships. Based on findings from these sessions culturally appropriate strategies are recommended for recruiting AA men and women for PrCA education research. Community-based research recruitment challenges and lessons learned are presented.

Four teenagers with severe aplastic anemia, initially diagnosed and evaluated over a seven-year period at The Johns Hopkins Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Baltimore, were residents of the same small town in South Carolina. Estimated annual incidence for that age group in the town, based on the four cases, was 100 times the expected rate. All four of the teenagers had attended one of two junior high schools. An exploratory survey of all high-school students, comparing risk factors of those who had attended the "affected" junior high school with those who had attended the "unaffected" junior high school, showed no associations with exposure to glue, paint or varnishes, pesticides, history of hepatitis or infectious mononucleosis, or use of chloramphenicol or other suspected drugs. Weak associations were found between the affected junior high school and employment in the textile industry and in agriculture (specifically peach orchards).

An apparent cluster of four aplastic anemia (AA) cases in teenagers residing in a small South Carolina town was further investigated. Incidence of AA in all age groups in a surrounding three county area (TCA) over a 12-year time interval was determined and compared with AA incidence rates in Baltimore, representing the only known population based United States incidence data. The same general age-specific incidence pattern (based on 27 cases in the TCA and 118 in Baltimore) was found in the two areas, both overall and for the four race-sex groups. Although based on small numbers, nonwhite average annual age-adjusted rates for males and females were higher in the TCA (6.8 and 13.7 per million) than in Baltimore (4.7 and 7.3). For whites, TCA rates were 11.7 and 5.4 (for males and females) and Baltimore rates were 7.1 and 5.4. The differences for non-whites in the two areas may indicate a greater prevalence of risk factors for AA in the TCA than in Baltimore, but the small numbers of cases and the lack of comparable data from other areas of the country, together with the possibility of misdiagnosis of the disease, make definitive conclusions impossible.