Tackling barriers to early diagnosis

Early diagnosis of PROstate CANcer for Black men (PROCAN-B)

Black men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer later when treatment can be more complicated

Dr Floor Christie de-Jong and her team will be working with the local Black community in Scotland and North-East England

They will be developing workshops to tackle the barriers to early diagnosis for Black men

The aim of the workshops is to encourage men to seek help or advice early and reduce the number of late diagnoses

If successful, the workshops could be rolled out across the UK and beyond

Dr Floor Christie de-Jong

Principal Investigator

Floor is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health. Her research is focused on tackling health inequalities, and in particular focuses on ethnic disparities in cancer. Her research takes a community-centred approach and aims to work in partnership with the community to develop interventions together to encourage early diagnosis.

Professor Jonathan Ling

Co-investigator

Jonathan Ling is Professor of Public Health at the University of Sunderland and Associate Director of Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health. He is interested in how research can help to inform healthcare policy and practice.

Dr Judith Eberhardt

Co-investigator

Judith Eberhardt is Associate Professor of Psychology at Teesside University, a chartered psychologist and associate fellow of the British Psychological Society. Judith is interested in understanding psychosocial aspects of preventative health behaviours such as cancer screening and vaccination, and how these can help inform health promotion campaigns and behaviour change interventions.

Dr Marie Kotzur

Co-investigator

Marie Kotzur is a behavioural scientist. She is passionate about reducing inequalities in preventive health care and cancer treatment outcomes. Her research seeks to improve cancer screening participation through understanding screening barriers and how to support people in using cancer screening services.

Dr. Olugbenga Samuel Oyeniyi

Post-Doctoral Research Associate

Olugbenga Sam is a post-doctoral researcher with background in Medical and Pharmaceutical Microbiology. He is also very much interested in Public Health especially in the areas of health protection, health promotion and prevention of ill health. He believes the combination of laboratory studies and public health research is key and crucial to comprehensive and extensive understanding of human health.

Professor Katie Robb

Co-investigator

Katie Robb is Professor of Behavioural Science and Health and leads the Cancer Behaviour Research Group at the University of Glasgow. Katie is passionate about reducing inequalities in cancer and her research focuses on optimising early detection and diagnosis behaviours.

John Kabuye

Collaborator

John Kabuye was born in Uganda. He is an alumnus of Teesside University, Middlesbrough with a Masters in Information Technology Management, PGCE (IT and Maths). He is a professional Mathematics Lecturer and works in further education. He is an active member of the diverse local community and works with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups across the Tees Valley. He is the founding Director of Ubuntu Multicultural Centre CIC based in Middlesbrough. He is a school governor and a trustee of Middlesbrough food bank. John is passionate about Community centred research, education, community empowerment and cohesion. John always works to make sure everyone gets a fair chance in the community he lives in. John is a collaborator on the project and Public Involvement and Community Engagement (PICE) and Recruitment Lead for the North-east.

The gap

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK.

Black men are twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer compared to White men, and 2.5 times more likely to die from the disease. They may also be more likely to face delayed referrals and be offered less aggressive cancer treatments even though they are more likely to have more aggressive tumours. This inequity is complex, with unequal access to care and social factors, as well as biological factors at play, and urgently needs addressing.

1 in 4 Black men will be diagnosed with

prostate cancer

Floor and the team hope that their workshop will reduce some of the barriers to early diagnosis by encouraging more Black men to seek help or advice. This will mean that for those who do go on to develop prostate cancer, they are more likely to be diagnosed early, receive any treatment as soon as possible and ultimately have better outcomes.

The importance of early diagnosis

Early diagnosis is key to saving lives.

Almost everyone diagnosed with stage 1 or 2 prostate cancer will survive for 5 years or more following their diagnosis compared to just 50% diagnosed with stage 4. Despite this, Black men are often diagnosed late. There are many reasons for this, ranging from low awareness to trust issues with healthcare providers. For example, previous research from Prostate Cancer Research found that only a quarter (24%) of Black men were aware of their increased risk.

Importantly, this intervention is delivered within the community, and by the community. As a result, the benefits to those who take part in the workshops will be seen very quickly. The workshop can also be adapted to a range of contexts and be rolled out more widely across the UK relatively quickly and easily.

The research project

Floor will be working with the Black community in the North-East and Scotland, as well as researchers from the University of Sunderland, Teesside University, University of Glasgow and Ubuntu Multicultural Centre. Together, they will develop workshops to tackle the barriers to early diagnosis.

The research project will delve into the reasons that Black men don’t seek help early. The researchers will then develop, test and refine tactics that might help change this, including training peer educators. The workshops could also be expanded to other areas in the UK if it is proven to work.

Working with community members ensures the workshops will be culturally sensitive and more likely to address the real-world concerns of Black men and the barriers they face.

“

Early diagnosis can save lives, but Black men are often diagnosed late. Action is needed urgently to ensure everyone can benefit from early diagnosis of prostate cancer, particularly people at higher risk.

Interventions developed in collaboration with the community work best to make sure an intervention is useful and culturally a good fit. In this project we will work together with Black men to develop an intervention to raise awareness of prostate cancer risk and support Black men in recognising the value of getting help early.
Dr Floor Christie de-Jong
Lead researcher