In spectrum sensing, there is a tradeoff between the probability of missed detection and the probability of a false alarm according to the value of the sensing threshold. Therefore, it is important to determine the sensing threshold suitable to the environment of cognitive radio networks. In this study, we consider a cognitive radio-based ad hoc network where secondary users directly communicate by using the same frequency band as the primary system and control their transmit power on the basis of the distance between them. First, we investigate a condition in which the primary and the secondary users can share the same frequency band without harmful interference from each other, and then, propose an algorithm that controls the sensing threshold dynamically on the basis of the transmit power of the secondary user. The analysis and simulation results show that the proposed sensing threshold control algorithm has low probabilities of both missed detection and a false alarm and thus, enables optimized spectrum sharing between the primary and the secondary systems.