Oral Cancer Screening Efforts among Black Men on the Southside of Chicago

Problem: Oral cancers are the fourth most common form of cancer in African American men. African American men are six times more likely than white men to develop one of these diseases, and 11% more likely than both white men and the general population to have their cancers diagnosed in the latter stages of disease. These disparities are greatest in poor communities where regular oral health care is lacking. Late-stage diagnosis decreases survival and increases morbidity. Although oral cancers tend to remain asymptomatic until late stages of disease, early detection can often provide curative treatment modalities. Project Brotherhood (PB) is a program designed by and for Black men. PB has developed innovative and unique methods of recruiting and retaining black men into a gender and culturally specific primary care setting.

Methods: Project Brotherhood and The University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a community-based intervention to provide oral cancer early detection services to African American men on the Southside of Chicago. We have trained clinic medical staff to assess patient risk, to perform oral cancer early detection examinations, and to offer tobacco cessation counseling as indicated. We have developed culturally appropriate outreach and public education strategies.

Conclusion: We will present the Project Brotherhood Logic Model and a process evaluation of our oral cancer prevention program to date. This will include analysis of program qualitative and quantitative data. These activities will be carefully evaluated and discussed in order to establish how best to promote early detection in African American men.