No subjects were enrolled here or at UCSF.

RATIONALE: Gathering information about symptom management from patients with localized prostate cancer may help doctors improve patients' quality of life.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying symptom management in African-American men with localized prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Develop a symptom management intervention for African-American men treated for localized prostate cancer, with a particular emphasis on low health literacy men.

OUTLINE: Participants are interviewed by the principal investigator over the phone or meet the principal investigator at the Veterans Administration prostate cancer clinic. If the interview is conducted in the clinic, it is held in a private room in the clinic.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Biopsy-proven localized prostate cancer

  • Has received treatment for prostate cancer

• Patient self-identifies as being of African-American descent

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Able to speak and read in English
• Has an address in order to receive study materials by mail (a street address or post office box)
• Has either a telephone in order to be interviewed OR is able to meet the principal investigator at the Veterans Administration prostate clinic and be interviewed there

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics