Prostate Cancer Partnership (PCCP)

Pccp Cropped Scaled

Partnership co-leads: Bettina Drake and Dewey Helms

Partnership Updates

In the past year, the Prostate Cancer Community Partnership (PCCP) welcomed two new members to the partnership. Dr. Nhail Tutlam serves as St. Louis County Department of Health’s Chronic Disease Epidemiology Manager. Dr. Tutlam is also an adjunct professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and teaches a chronic disease prevention course at Lindenwood University.

The partnership also welcomed Mr. Lennie Harrison III, who serves as a State Farm Insurance Agent. Mr. Harrison has been a prominent member of the 100 Black Men of Metropolitan St. Louis. Under his leadership, Mr. Harrison developed a “Barbershop tour,” where he and several nurses visited barbershops in underserved areas to provide blood pressure and other wellness screenings.

The PCCP’s partner organization, The Empowerment Network (TEN), participated in ZERO—The End of Prostate Cancer’s virtual walk. St. Louis, the Twin Cities, Omaha and Chicago were the major Midwestern cities that participated in the virtual platform. Over 100 participants registered for the event. The walk featured a thirty-minute presentation from medical professionals and survivors. Mellve Shahid, Sr., TEN’s founder and board president, served on the panel to address prostate cancer disparities, specifically among African American men. The Empowerment Network managed to raise over $1,400 in its efforts to support further treatment for prostate cancer.

The PCCP also provided free prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing on Saturday, September 12th, at St. Alphonsus Ligori “Rock” church in St. Louis. The screening was a collaboration with Siteman Cancer Center and the St. Louis Urban League. Community members were able to receive free mammograms in addition to blood pressure and glucose checks. The PCCP managed to screen 16 men during this event.

A coalition of providers, the Prostate Cancer Coalition, led by Dr. Lannis Hall and Dr. Arnold Bullock has worked to implement a Health Maintenance Alert in EPIC to promote guideline appropriate prostate cancer screening.

The Prostate Cancer Community Partnership strives to:

  • Reduce and ultimately eliminate disparities in prostate cancer outcomes, especially among African Americans who experience the heaviest burden from the disease.
  • Promote awareness and access to state-of-the-art prostate cancer care and educational information.
  • Increase awareness and understanding of prostate cancer, diagnosis and treatment. Over the years, prostate partnership members have participated in hundreds of community health fairs and provided educational material about prostate health.
  • In addition to education, the prostate partnership has secured funding to provide free prostate cancer education, screening and follow-up care for high-risk men.
  • Improve the participation rates of minorities in health research studies, including biorepositories.

For more information about the partnership and specific projects, contact PECaD at [email protected]. Click here for more information on prostate cancer.