The campaign, "SELECT Sunday," conducted in collaboration with the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer II, seeks to double African-American enrollment in SELECT, an international, National Cancer Institute-funded study to determine whether vitamin E and the trace element selenium can protect against prostate cancer, the most common form of malignancy in men after non-melanoma skin cancer. "Since study recruitment began in the summer of 2001, we have enrolled 27,067 men and have met more than half of our recruitment goal, but we still lack an adequate representation of African-American men," said Russell Campbell, the study's national minority-recruitment and adherence coordinator. "While more than 3,000 African-American men already are participating in the study, our goal is to enroll more than 6,000."
In addition to boosting study enrollment, SELECT Sunday aims to raise awareness of the seriousness of prostate cancer among African-American men, who have the highest incidence rates in the world and a death rate that's more than double that of white men, according to the American Cancer Society.
"Prostate cancer is attacking our black men at an alarming rate and we need to find a way to prevent this horrible disease," said the campaign's celebrity supporter Les Brown, a motivational speaker, author and television personality who also is a five-year survivor of prostate cancer.
"Through my involvement with SELECT Sunday, I encourage congregations nationwide to host a SELECT Sunday service and to advise African Americans about the importance of prostate-cancer awareness and participating in SELECT. We
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Contact: Kristen Woodward
kwoodwar@fhcrc.org
206-667-5095
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
13-Nov-2003