Abstract C066: The SC AMEN Program for Black men: Providing education and navigation to prostate cancer screening with informed decision-making
Authors: Ford Marvella E. , Slan Melanie , Malek Angel M. , Lawton Claudia , Moultrie Lee , Pressley Adam , Gomez Ellen , Zserai Jessica , McLauren Joan , Platt Mina , Le Nhi Phuong , Keeve Chloe , Zabec Joie , Sagatelian Marla , Shungu Nicholas 
Published: December 2023

Purpose: Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer and the second highest cause of cancer death in the United States (U.S). The prostate cancer incidence and death rates in the U.S. are twice as high among Black men vs White men. To address this issue, the Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center (MUSC HCC) developed the South Carolina Prostate Cancer Education and Navigation to Screening Program for African American Men (SC AMEN Program).  This new program provides prostate cancer information and includes patient navigators who help to overcome the social determinants of health barriers (e.g., lack of transportation, lack of a primary care provider, co-pays) that could prevent Black men from receiving prostate cancer screening. The navigators guide the participants to a physician for an informed decision-making discussion related to prostate cancer screening. Methods: The SC AMEN Program includes a one-hour evidence-based prostate cancer educational session that is delivered to each enrolled participant. The pre-test survey assesses prostate cancer knowledge using the validated PROCASE scale. The survey is administered again at post-test, following the educational session. Each participant is then navigated to a physician to discuss prostate cancer screening over the next three months. The navigation intervention is modeled after the National Cancer Institute’s patient navigation training modules, which integrate adult learning theory, social cognitive theory, and social support theory into the intervention. Results: Among the 122 study participants, 2.8% reported having Hispanic/American Indian ethnicity. The age range of the 122 participants was 40-69 years old; 5.7% had less than a high school education, 26.2% stopped education after high school, 18.9% completed high school and some college, and 49.2% were college graduates/had completed a postgraduate degree.  In terms of health insurance coverage, only 45.1% of participants had current or former employer or labor union insurance coverage. The other participants had a mix of Medicare, military, and private insurance coverage. Eighty-seven percent of the participants had an identified primary care physician, while 9.8% did not. 87.7% of participants have primary care and 9.8% of participants did not. The total average pretest score was 6.5/10 with a standard deviation of 1.7. The total average post-test score was 7.2/10 with a standard deviation of 1.5. The total point increase from pretest to post-test was 0.7. Across all study sites, the change in prostate cancer knowledge results from pre-test to post-test was statistically significant (p&lt;0.001). Ninety-three percent of the participants in this ongoing study have received prostate cancer screening or have made a screening appointment. Conclusion: The SC AMEN Program appears to be successful in increasing the study participants’ knowledge of prostate cancer and informed decision making for prostate cancer screening.

Citation Format: Marvella E. Ford, Melanie Slan, Angel M. Malek, Claudia Lawton, Lee Moultrie, Adam Pressley, Ellen Gomez, Jessica Zserai, Joan McLauren, Mina Platt, Nhi Phuong Le, Chloe Keeve, Joie Zabec, Marla Sagatelian, Nicholas Shungu. The SC AMEN Program for Black men: Providing education and navigation to prostate cancer screening with informed decision-making [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr C066.