The impact of a cancer education program on the knowledge base of participating students

Background. Partners in Research is a ten-week summer elective designed to provide cancer-related educational activities. This study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of the program on the general cancer knowledge of medi cal students, pharmacy students, and undergraduate biology-majors. Methods. The 24 students enrolled in 1999 were evaluated using a pretest and post-t est with 75 multiple-choice questions. Results. The mean test score increas ed significantly from 46.6% to 53.0% (p = 0.001). Improvements were signifi cant for general cancer knowledge and three specific disease categories (br east, gastrointestinal, and skin cancers). Conclusions. The results indicat e that the program does increase the cancer-related knowledge of students.