Student Initiative

African American men have prostate cancer 2.5 times higher rate than all other men in the United States. Prostate cancer has the largest racial disparity for any type of major cancer.

PHEN was founded in 2003 to address and eliminate this disparity. In continuing with education and awareness outreach,

PHEN will launch a series of new initiatives at its fourth annual African American summit in September,2008. The theme for the summit is “ Reaching Men Where they Are”.

The focus of “Reaching Men Where They Are” is to educate men in their homes. To help implement this new inhome outreach initiative, PHEN plans to recruit college students.

Students will be encourage to use their laptops to sit with their fathers, grandfathers, uncles or other relatives, over the holidays to view PHEN T.V.

The goal is to create awareness and knowledge with family members about prostate cancer. This provides the student with a role in educating family members on prostate cancer.

PHEN online education television ( will be used extensively for this broader outreach effort, and specifically the in home initiative.

Launched in 2008, PHEN T. V addresses the unmet education and awareness needs of black men. The primary objectives of these programs are to increase quality of life for men with prostate cancer and to save lives of all men by educating them about early detection.

PHEN program is aimed at healthy men, survivors and men newly diagnosed and looking for treatment options and men and their loved ones facing psychological issues commonly associated with cancer.

PHEN T. V. programs are produced from annual PHEN summits and other PHEN meetings. They include medical, research experts and survivors with real life experiences.

PHEN is launching and highlighting the student initiative at this 2008 Summit here in Washington, D.C. during the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend.

The Student Initiative will be maintained as a highly visible effort over the 2008 holidays and beyond. PHEN will survey and report the findings on PHEN website.

A pilot study was conducted at a southern African American university to rate the PHEN T.V. The Study Students were given a pre-test on prostate cancer

The PHEN T.V. was displayed Students were very attentive and listened to all presenters

A post test was given after the PHEN T.V. The Results: A total of twenty male minority students participated.

The pre test 50 % answered correctly The Post test 90 % answered correctly The results show the need to do a better job educating African American men about prostate cancer awareness and Knowledge.

Another goal for the student initiative is to include all four African American nursing schools in the state of North Carolina to write a grant using PHEN T.V. as a teaching tool.