What CDC Is Doing About Prostate Cancer

Through the National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program, CDC has supported the development of Comprehensive Cancer Control plans in all 50 states and in several tribes and U.S. Associated Pacific Islands and territories. Many of these plans include activities to control the burden of prostate cancer.

Publications developed by CDC include Prostate Cancer Screening: A Decision Guide (PDF-118KB), which presents a balanced approach to the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening and enables men, their families, and physicians to make a decision that is right for them.

CDC also created decision guides specifically for African American men and Hispanic men. Prostate Cancer Screening: A Decision Guide for African Americans (PDF-155KB) and La detección del cáncer de próstata: Una guía para hispanos en los Estados Unidos (PDF-512KB) help men make informed decisions about screening by providing information about the prostate gland, prostate cancer, and prostate cancer screening. These guides encourage men to decide whether screening is the right choice for them.

To expand its series of educational materials about prostate cancer screening, CDC developed 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. At this time, there are no plans to reproduce the CD-ROM.

These and other public health efforts that address prostate cancer support CDC's overarching goal of healthy people in every stage of life. They also address the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Healthy People 2010 goal of reducing the prostate cancer death rate by 10%.

Ongoing Work

CDC's prostate cancer activities include—

• Conducting research and developing materials that explore how best to communicate about 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 men 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.
• Monitoring the prostate cancer activities identified in local Comprehensive Cancer Control plans.
• Participating in various prostate cancer conferences, workshops, and seminars to continue collaboration with colleagues and other partners.

These activities will further efforts to develop appropriate public health strategies for prostate cancer, increase sharing of screening-related information between providers and their patients, and 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—

• Expand research about prostate cancer screening and treatment options, especially those focused on developing appropriate interventions to help men make informed decisions about screening.
• Disseminate CDC's materials about informed decision making nationwide.
• Disseminate data on the burden of prostate cancer.