Standardized Global Behavioral and Epidemiological Measures for Prostate Cancer Studies in Black Men

Multicenter trans-national studies may be required to understand the complex causes of and solutions to prostate cancer disparities in Black men. In 2014, two cancer epidemiology consortia supported by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) - the Prostate Cancer Transatlantic Consortium (CaPTC), and African-Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3) - formed a consortia alliance to address the disproportionate burden of prostate cancer in Black men. As part of the alliance, this global study focused on developing standardized and culturally tailored data elements and measures for prostate cancer research in these populations.  The study objective was achieved by a Consensus Working Group using the NCI–Grid-Enable Measures (GEM) platform. The Consensus Working Group members were assigned to three Special Interest Groups to focus on behavioral, epidemiology and clinical topics. Based on crowd-sourcing methodology, the initial standardization decisions were made by each group using GEM. This was followed using nominal group technique to build consensus. Finally, a one-day consensus development conference was held to facilitate the input of the scientific community. The use of the GEM platform, nominal group technique and a consensus development conference resulted in agreement among stakeholders for a recommended set of measures that included 25 behavioral scales and 24 epidemiological scales. The measures developed in this process will facilitate data harmonization and data sharing for multiethnic studies of Black men globally and these measures can be used by other researchers in this area