Cancer Info Offered Along with Haircuts
Effort aims at black men, who face higher risk of prostate cancer

(HealthDay News) -- Inspired by the movie Barbershop , an American prostate cancer survivor started a program that provides barbers with information on the disease to share with their customers.

Thousands of barbers across the United States have enlisted in the program, created by Virgil Simons to educate minority men about prostate cancer and screening.

Shortly after his own brush with prostate cancer 13 years ago, the black textile industry executive became a cancer fighter, founding what has become the Prostate Net (www.theprostatenet.com) to educate men about the disease and help them "empower themselves."

Simons launched the barber initiative after he saw the 2004 movie that focused on the barbershop as a natural gathering place for black men.

Barbershop struck a chord with Simons because he "knew there had to be another form of outreach, particularly for those at high risk of that disease, minority men," he said. "So I set up a program where medical centers around the country educated barbers, and they provided information on screening and free care."

The program started with 300 barbers and screening for 20,000 men. More than a hundred medical centers now take part in the program, and a number of participating barbershops now have multimedia workstations that provide video clips, text-based material, podcasts and Web content.

The degree that these barbershops influence knowledge and behavior about prostate cancer is still being assessed, with a survey under way. "But from anecdotal reports, we know we are making a difference," Simons told HealthDay . "More and more barbers are asking about it on their own, and also more academic centers are using barbershops to provide information.

Black men are the main focus of the program. Research has shown that they're 60 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer and almost 2.5 times more likely to die of the disease than white men. A lack of access to routine health care is believed to be a major reason for the increased prostate cancer risk among black men.

Details about the effectiveness of the Prostate Net were presented in 2007 at the Innovative Minds in Prostate Cancer Today meeting in Atlanta .

Another study presented at the meeting suggested that the neighborhood pharmacist might not always be a reliable source of prostate cancer information. Researchers asked 89 Florida pharmacists whether they were willing and able to counsel male customers about how to prevent prostate cancer and to be alert for warning signs of the disease.

Most of the pharmacists said they would join the education effort, but their "score on the general prostate cancer knowledge scale for patients was lower than expected for health-care professionals," wrote Helene Vilme, of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, and colleagues.

They suggested that research be conducted on how to better educate pharmacists about prostate cancer.

On the Web

To learn more about prostate cancer, visit the American Cancer Society online.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Virgil Simons, director, the Prostate Net, Hackensack , N.J. ; Sept. 5, 2007, presentations, Innovative Minds in Prostate Cancer Today meeting, Atlanta
Author: Robert Preidt
Publication Date: Sept. 30, 2008
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