Dr Michelle Maxine King-Okoye

Trinidad and Tobago (TT) is reported to have the higest prostate cancer mortality rates in the world (Hosein et al., 2016) with an age-standardized mortality rate of 29 per 100,000 (Center et al., 2012). The disease is prevalent among Afro-Caribbean men who are diagnosed late with advanced stages of prostate disease and metatastic prostate cancer.  These men subsequently have poorer outcomes and poor quality of life. Black Afro-Caribbean men are at higher risk than White or Caucasian men due to earlier onset, that is aged 50 compared to 60s in the West, ethnicity and links to family history. Compared to Black men from developed countries, Caribbean-born Black men have significantly lower five-year survival rates (81.4 vs % 78.1%) (Mutetwa et al. 2010). Late diagnosis results in more costly treatment for these men. This issue is also an identified problem for Black American and Black British populations due to ethnicity as the disease process of prostate cancer is more aggressive among Black men than White or Caucasian men. As such, Black men progress more rapidly to advanced metastatic prostate disease at 4:1 ratio in comparison to White men (Powell et al., 2010). Apart from ethnicity, distrust in the medical system, lack of knowledge of prostate cancer and poor help seeking behaviours are identified as major contributory factors of increasing prostate cancer mortality rates among Black men (Shenoy et al., 2016). Despite the reported escalating prostate cancer mortlaity rates in TT, there is a dearth of research that explores Afro-Caribbean men and their partners experiences along routes to diagnosis for this disease. An explorative design is significant to unearth beliefs and perceptions as well as factors that may impinge on experiences of care pathways for prostate cancer. My current research aims to examine Afro-Caribbean and their partners experiences of prostate cancer along routes to diagnosis in TT utilizing a grounded theory framework.