Prostate cancer through the eyes of Black men in the UK

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Prostate cancer through the eyes of Black men in the UK- what lessons can we learn to address health inequalities and improve patient experience in primary care?

• IRAS ID

  323667

• Contact name

  Patricia Schartau

• Contact email

  patricia.schartau@ucl.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University College London Joint Research Office

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 3 months, days

• Research summary

  In the UK, prostate cancer is the most common cancer (one in eight) with the rate being higher amongst Black African or Caribbean men (one in four). Black men develop prostate cancer at younger ages, are diagnosed later and their cancer is likely to progress faster. In the UK, Black men are 2.5 times more likely to die of prostate cancer compared to White men. Genetic factors alone cannot account for this. Whilst a range of barriers and causes have been identified, we don’t understand their relative importance or how they interact to create inequalities across prostate cancer care. We know even less about how they can be addressed.

  We aim to explore what enables Black men to seek prostate cancer screening or engage with prostate cancer healthcare, and what barriers there are, from the perspectives of:
  (i) Black men eligible for screening
  (ii) Black male prostate cancer patients
  (iii) Healthcare professionals

  This project will be a qualitative study comprising of three elements;

  (1) Semi-structured focus groups (discussion groups) or interviews if strongly preferred with approximately 24 Black prostate cancer patients and Black men eligible for screening to discuss what helps them (facilitators) to seek prostate cancer screening and engage with primary healthcare services post-diagnosis, and what stops them (barriers).
  (2) Interviews with around 20 healthcare professionals who are involved with looking after these patients.
  (3) An online workshop to exchange learning from our research, expand our research network and agree on a primary care intervention from our findings (no ethics required)

  This research will help us understand the barriers and facilitators faced by Black men to engage with prostate cancer care from screening to survivorship. This knowledge can be applied to other diseases where Black men/women carry a disproportionate burden and allows us to plan the development of a primary care intervention to reduce inequalities.

• REC name

  London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  23/LO/0873

• Date of REC Opinion

  2 Nov 2023

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion