Day: Thursday, Sept. 7

Time: 1PM

Location: Canadian Cancer Society, 650 W. 10th

Speakers: Jennifer Nuk, MSc, , Practice Leader – Genetic Counselling. BC Cancer

& Zoe Cohn, Genetics Counsellor and Clinical Coordinator, Heritage Cancer Program at BC Cancer

Topic: Genetic Factors in the Development of Cancer and the Heritage Cancer Program

Date: August 3, Thursday, 1:00PM

Location: Canadian Cancer Society–565 W. 10th Ave. and Zoom

Speaker: Dr. John Oliffe, Professor of Nursing, UBC Faculty of Nursing

Topic: Managing he Stress of Having Prostate Cancer

A Zoom link to the meeting will be sent via the group email service. If you are not yet on the list, contact us at vancouverprostate@gmail.com to join. 

John Oliffe is a Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Men’s Health Promotion. The founder and lead of UBC’s Men’s Health Research program. John’s work focusses on psychosocial prostate cancer, and men’s mental health. John returns to speak to the Vancouver Prostate Cancer group for the third time in the last five years.

Exercise participation among cancer survivors has been shown to improve quality of life and physical functioning, yet only 10%-30% of survivors meet physical activity guidelines. In prostate cancer, aerobic exercise after prostate cancer diagnosis may reduce the risk of prostate cancer recurrence or death by up to 60 percent. Sedentary behavior increased during the pandemic, but “stay at home” restrictions have also provided an opportunity to examine home-based exercise programs, according to a new paper by PCF-funded researcher Christina Dieli-Conwright, PhD, MPH of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues. The team reviewed 12 studies of exercise interventions in people with cancer that were all home-based and adapted for pandemic restrictions. The approaches broadly included:Self-directed, unsupervised: recommendation to adhere to exercise guidelines or to complete a daily exercise program with accompanying resources (e.g., video)Self-directed, with regular guidance: online videos, smart watches, and printed materials supplemented with regular phone calls or messages to patientsVirtually supervised interventions: one-on-one or group exercise sessions over videoconferencing. Although this review did not aim to determine which approach was most effective, it did yield some preliminary information about home-based exercise programs in cancer survivors and identified challenges and areas for further research. For example, in the virtually supervised programs, adherence was quite high, ranging from 84%-94%. In two trials in breast and prostate cancer, attendance and retention were actually higher in the virtual sessions held during the pandemic, compared with in-person supervision prior to COVID-19.  Read More

The good news is that prostate cancer death rates have been in a steady decline since the mid-90’s. However, in recent years the rate of decline is not as steep as in the previous twenty-five years. To learn more, have a look at this short article from the PC Foundation of the US.
And by the way, there’s an important message for younger men (40’s and up) that should be noted.

https://www.pcf.org/c/statement-from-pcf-ceo-charles-j-ryan-md-on-acs-cancer-facts-figures-2022/