02/17/17  Portland, Ore.

Dr. Kerri Winters-Stone along with collaborators, Karen Lyons (SoN) and Tom Beer (Knight cancer Institute), OCTRI and colleagues at UCSF,  have a Movember Foundation grant to develop an interactive web portal for prostate cancer survivors.

By Christi Richardson-Zboralski

The portal is part of a larger TrueNTH program which is a multi-faceted web-based resource to improve the quality of life for men living with and beyond prostate cancer. 

The Movember Foundation is:

"the only charity tackling men’s health on a global scale, year round. We’re addressing some of the biggest health issues faced by men: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health and suicide prevention."

A film crew from Los Angeles came out to Portland in January to shoot instructional exercise videos that are based on Dr. Winters-Stone's research. These videos will be resources for men and their care partners who come to the web portal to seek help with exercise. The coolest part? In addition to her wonderful RA/fitness trainer, Kimi Daniel, who instructed and choreographed the videos, her former research participants were the “stars” of the videos, which will have national if not global reach.

Participant, Michael Manlove, said,"Initially, I received a letter in the mail (from the cancer registry) about the study," Manlove was in one of Winters-Stone's first research studies in cancer survivors, since then her work has continued to grow with the help of the Movember Foundation and other funders. "I decided to do it. I had already isolated myself and no one knew how to respond to me when I talked about having prostate cancer, " Manlove said. "It was time to do something. The exercise classes helped me get stronger and regain my balance. Now I'm able to catch myself before I fall." 

"Dr. Winters-Stone lived next door to me, that's how I found out about the program," Paul Gamson, participant in the current group, said. "During my treatment I lost touch with a couple of good friends who couldn't or weren't able to talk to me about cancer. The word cancer scares some people," Gamson said. "In some ways, one of the best things about the exercise classes is being able to talk about a shared experience. The friendship and support we get from each other are huge." After each exercise class the whole group sits down with a cup of coffee and hangs out, they talk, not always about cancer, but about the things they enjoy and, sometimes about the things they struggle with. 

Photo above and to the right: Michael, Kimi, and Paul

When the two were approached to be in the exercise video for the web portal they fully supported showing participants who were"the real deal." In other words, all the participants in Winters-Stone's videos are real participants who have gone through treatment for cancer. These videos will be available via the web portal for others to utilize. This entire project is meant to reach men with prostate cancer across the USA (and globally via the other partners), so it is for men in the community (vs. in-patient) and is also intended to be culturally and geographically appropriate. The impetus for having the US-based

TrueNTH projects be web-based is so that they reach men who may have limited access to programs and resources that are most often available in urban academic medical centers. TrueNTH is an international partnership to develop innovative evidence-based interventions and care models to improve the physical and mental well-being of prostate cancer survivors and their loved ones. Within TrueNTH, four countries (U.S.A., Australia, Canada, U.K.) are developing solutions to improve lifestyle practices among men facing prostate cancer. Dr. Winters-Stone's project will implement a scalable web-based portal that reaches prostate cancer survivors, providers, and partners and provides personalized exercise prescriptions and dietary advice, interactive guidance, and behavioral support via social media, tele-exercise, and face-to-face communities.

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Input provided by Dr. Winters-Stone, Paul Gamson, and Michael Manlove

Originally published on the SoN News internal blog