What CDC is Doing

Through prostate cancer control initiatives, CDC provides the public, physicians, and policymakers with the information they need to make informed decisions about the potential risks and benefits of prostate cancer screening and follow-up.

Accomplishments

CDC expanded its series of educational materials about prostate cancer screening with a CD-ROM that fostered dialogue between patients and physicians, and helped men aged 50 years or older make informed decisions about prostate cancer screening. It featured interactive tools, various medical and public health perspectives on prostate cancer screening, and different conclusions patients might reach about screening after weighing all of the issues. A limited number of CD-ROMs were produced and distributed while supplies lasted.

CDC also has created a decision guide for African American men about prostate cancer screening. Prostate Cancer Screening: A Decision Guide for African Americans helps men make informed decisions about screening by providing information about the prostate gland, prostate cancer, and prostate cancer screening. This guide encourages men to decide whether screening is the right choice for them.

Additional materials include Prostate Cancer Screening: A Decision Guide, which presents a balanced approach to the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening, and allows men, their families, and physicians to make a decision that is right for them. Also available is a Web-based slide presentation, Screening for Prostate Cancer: Sharing the Decision, designed to give primary care physicians information about the potential benefits and risks of prostate cancer screening and to explain how clinicians can help each man make the best choice.

CDC continues to promote and disseminate materials about informed decision making nationwide.

Ongoing Work

CDC's prostate cancer activities include

• Conducting research and developing materials that explore how best to communicate about and promote informed decision making related to prostate cancer screening.



• Enhancing prostate cancer data in cancer registries—especially information about the stage of disease at the time of diagnosis, quality of care, and the race and ethnicity of the man with prostate cancer.



• Sponsoring research on whether screening for prostate cancer reduces deaths caused by the disease, and on men's and health care providers' knowledge and awareness of prostate cancer screening.



• Providing funding to states, tribes/tribal organizations, and U.S. territories for prostate cancer activities identified in local Comprehensive Cancer Control plans.

These activities will further efforts to develop and deliver appropriate public health strategies for prostate cancer, and will improve the sharing of screening-related information between providers and their patients. In so doing, the activities also will advance CDC’s overarching goal of helping older adults live better, longer.

Future Directions

CDC will continue to support intramural and extramural awareness about prostate cancer and research efforts to

• Review and implement, as appropriate, recommendations from a December 2000 prostate cancer meeting of health care providers, researchers, survivors, advocates, and others.



• Expand research about prostate cancer screening and treatment options, especially those focused on developing appropriate interventions to help men make informed decisions about screening.



• Promote and disseminate CDC's materials about informed decision making nationwide.