The Tribune

The University of Florida in Gainesville, in partnership with The University of the West Indies School of Clinical Medicine and Research, the Bahamas, will host the second biennial Science of Global Prostate Cancer Disparity in Black Men Conference at the SuperClub Breezes Resort next month.

The four-day event, scheduled for November 1 to 4, has attracted delegates from North America, South America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men throughout the world. It is also the leading cause of death in men who die from prostate cancer, and preceded only by lung cancer in those countries where cigarette smoking is highly prevalent.

Thee conference in the Bahamas highlights the fact that while prostate cancer is most common in both black and white men globally, black men of African heritage are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, more likely to have a more advanced cancer when it is diagnosed and are almost four times more likely to die of their cancer.

Organisers see the conference as a landmark effort to continue to address the global burden of prostate cancer in black men. The conference will focus on exploring this differences in prostate cancer in black men, including reasons for the differences and strategies to change these outcomes. The conference theme is “The Global Burden of Prostate Cancer: Economic, Clinical and Humanistic Outcomes”.

The conference presenters and attendees include national and international scientists, clinicians, community leaders, prostate cancer survivors, prostate cancer advocates and other urological professionals.

The conference sessions reflect these diverse groups. It provides the opportunity for several professional consortiums actively involved in prostate cancer research to collaborate for better prostate cancer outcomes: (1) The Cancer of the Prostate Transatlantic Consortium - its primary interest is addressing the globally disproportionate burden of prostate cancer among Black men; (2) The African Organization for the Training and Research in Cancer (AORTIC); (3) The African-Caribbean Cancer (AC3) Consortium – focused on the study of viral, genetic, environmental and lifestyle risk factors for cancer in populations of African descent; (4) The Men of African Descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP) Consortium – focused on collaborative research to improve prostate cancer prevention, detection, and treatment in men of the African diaspora.

The re are workshops for cancer scientists in general: Grant writing, cancer registration, protection of human subjects in international research and biobanking and biospecimen material transfer in global collaborations.

Central to the conference are the state-of-the-art and keynote lectures on every facet of prostate cancer biology, diagnosis and treatment by scientists from world-renowned academic institutions. Rendering their support to the prostate cancer conference is the United States National Cancer Institute with its Director, Dr. Edward Trimble giving a keynote lecture in the opening plenary session.

One of the most important highlights of the conference from the perspective of organisers is the focus on patients with the disease. An entire day of the conference - Saturday, November 3 - is devoted to patient advocacy. The general public, in particular cancer support groups and cancer and health affiliated non-government and government organisations have much to benefit from this day of workshops and plenary sessions. The Patient Advocate Symposium is has no registration fees.

The final day of the conference is the pinnacle of the prostate cancer and urological experience in the Caribbean. The Caribbean Urological Association has partnered with the organisers of the Global Prostate Cancer Disparity Conference to have their annual conference simultaneously in the Bahamas.

“The November event is truly a landmark effort to organise the world experts in prostate cancer in one place at one time to share experience and scholarship to advance better outcomes in prostate cancer care in Black men throughout world. This collaboration is invaluable for researchers and caregivers from low-resource countries with limited resources in their efforts to develop effective interventions to eliminate prostate cancer disparities,” said organisers.