Developing an academic-community partnership for research in prostate cancer

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an important strategy for reducing racial disparities in health outcomes. Academic-community partnerships are central to CBPR; however, there are few examples of how to develop these partnerships for prostate cancer research. This report describes the methods used to develop an academic-community partnership between investigators at the University of Pennsylvania and members of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer for CBPR on quality of life following prostate cancer diagnosis. Our experiences demonstrate that a significant investment of time is needed to identify a community partner for prostate cancer research and develop an effective partnership.