Recruitment experience in the first phase of the African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer (AAHPC) Study

The African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer (AAHPC) Study is an ongoing multicenter genetic linkage study organized by Howard University and the N ational Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), with support from the Offi ce for Research on Minority Health and the National Cancer institute. The g oals of the study are to: (i) look for evidence of involvement of chromosom e 1q24-25 (HPC1) in African American men with hereditary prostate cancer (H PC) and (ii) conduct a genome wide search for other loci associated with HP C in African American men. To accomplish these goals, a network has been es tablished including Howard University, the NHGRI, and sh Collaborative Recr uitment Centers (CRCs). The CRCs are responsible for the identification and enrollment of 100 African American families. To date, 43 families have bee n enrolled. Recruitment strategies have included mass media campaigns, phys ician referrals, community health-fairs/prostate cancer screenings, support groups, tumor registries, as well as visits to churches, barber shops, and universities. By far, the most productive recruitment mechanisms have been physician referrals and tumor registries, yielding a total of 35 (81%) fam ilies. Approximately 41% (n = 3400) of probands initially contacted by phon e or mail expressed interest in participating; the families of 2% of these mel the eligibility criteria, and 75% of those families have been enrolled in the study, indicating a 0.5% recruitment yield (ratio of participants to contacts). As the first large-scale genetic linkage study of African Ameri cans, on a common disease, the challenges and successes of the recruitment process for the AAHPC Study should serve to inform future efforts to involv e this population in similar studies. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All ri ghts reserved.