Summit Through the Years – Part 3

For the third session of the 20th Annual African American Prostate Cancer Disparity Summit, PHEN’s Director of Communications Tomeeka Miller narrated a slideshow celebrating the 20 years of PHEN Summits and the important topics addressed. This particular slideshow focused on Summit years 2015 to 2019. The 2015 Summit took place on September 17-18 in Washington, D.C. with the help of Congressman Gregory Meeks as the Congressional sponsor.

“PHEN President and Founder Thomas A. Farrington opened the summit that year with an impassioned statement on the curveball the US Preventive Services Task Force had thrown in 2012. It had advised against early detection screening, jeopardizing the lives of Black men and others at high risk for prostate cancer,” stated Ms. Miller. “PHEN was getting vocal and had authored its own consensus statement along with its medical advisors that recommended baseline screening for Black men at age 40.”

These summits covered topics such as early detection screening guidelines, clinical research addressing the African American prostate cancer burden, the role of genetics, treatment costs, and PHEN’s educational and community engagement programs, such as the Daddy’s Boys stage play. By 2019, prominent speakers like Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Dr. Brandon Mahal, Duke Cancer Institute’s Dr. Daniel George, and Dr. Richard Lee from Mass General Hospital participated in the summit.