) The proposed educational program will be a comprehensive three-year community outreach education program designed to increase participation of both primary-care providers and community residents in state-of-the-art cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment activities. The program will be based on the overall structure of outreach education provided on an ongoing basis by the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University. It will be conducted in two Piedmont Oncology Association communities, Anderson and Spartanburg Counties in South Carolina. The program will consist of two phases, a community analysis followed by implementation of the educational program. The community analysis will include demographic characteristics of the community, an analysis of the health care system, a primary-care provider needs assessment survey, and formation of a community advisory board that will oversee program activities in the community. The educational program has two major components, the oncology community leader and the use of lay community leaders as community advocates for cancer education. Education will be directed to community and organizational leaders, with the goal of training them to disseminate information about cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment to community residents. Primary-care providers will be given information on cancer control in a Continuing Medical Education format, using the oncology community leader to coordinate this effort. The educational programs for community leaders and for providers will target four cancers that are of primary importance in terms of incidence, morbidity, and/or mortality: colon, breast, prostate, and skin cancer. Additional topics or cancer sites to be emphasized will be identified during the community analysis. The proposed program will test a model of community cancer control outreach that combines the best elements of provider and public education, and that establishes a communications network for obtaining new cancer control information. It is a program that is cost-effective, sustainable over time, and that is designed to be accessible to all members of the community. If successful, it will serve as a model for cancer control in similar communities.
