Both Dr. Courneya's and Dr. Berry's research will look at how physical activity and physical activity messaging influence the lives of prostate cancer and heart disease patients, respectively.
Dr. Tanya Berry: Affective heart disease and physical activity messages for women
A lot of time and money is spent to create messages that try to educate women about heart disease. These messages give information about heart healthy behaviours such as being more active. However, health messaging can be tricky. According to Tanya Berry, professor and Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity Promotion, while these messages are aimed to increase and improve healthy behaviours, a number of women with heart disease have reported that the messages have made them feel guilty, that they caused their own sickness.
"Messages about behaviours like physical activity targeted at women with heart disease can make them feel bad that they aren't physically active or frustrated because they aren't able to achieve their physical activity goals."
Berry and her team will try a very different approach and try to create messages that make women feel good about themselves and how they live. Working directly with women with heart disease, they will ask women to comment on the messages and will change the messages based on their comments. They will test is the new messages make women feel better-happier or less stressed-than the previous messages focused on communicating the health benefits of being physically active.
The goal of Berry's research project is to help create affective messages-messages that influence emotions-that not only cause positive emotional responses, but help encourage heart healthy behaviours. Berry explains that while changes in messaging may seem like a small change in how heart disease is talked about, it can have a widespread impact on women both with and without heart disease.
"This research will provide important information that can be used by health promoters in their efforts to address heart disease prevention in women. If successful, this study can also test messages about other health issues like smoking and diet."
Dr. Kerry Courneya: The ERASE Trial: A Phase II Randomized Controlled Trial of Exercise in Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Active Surveillance
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Canadian men. Most prostate cancer patients immediately receive expensive treatments including surgery, radiation, and hormonal therapy that may cause serious side effects such as urinary or sexual dysfunction. To avoid these negative impacts, a clinical practice called "active surveillance" has been introduced for low-risk prostate cancer patients.
According to Kerry Courneya, professor and Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Cancer, in active surveillance, men do not receive any treatments unless or until their prostate cancer becomes clinically significant. He adds that unfortunately, about a half of men eventually do need medical treatments due to tumour progression and/or fear of cancer progression.
As Courneya explains, exercise has been shown to delay the progression of prostate tumours in animal models by increasing immune function; however, no studies have been done in men with prostate cancer. He adds, exercise can help manage some symptoms in prostate cancer patients but no study has examined fear of cancer progression.
"Right now, prostate cancer patients on active surveillance receive limited advice concerning exercise. Exercise may be a simple intervention these men could do to slow the growth of their prostate cancer and reduce their chances of needing significant medical treatments."
The aims of Courneya's study are to provide evidence on the effects of exercise on:
- aerobic fitness
- fear of cancer progression and quality of life
- tumour progression and cancer-related biomarkers in prostate cancer patients undergoing active surveillance
"Exercise is a low cost intervention that may help men with prostate cancer remain on active surveillance longer by delaying tumour progression and reducing their fear of cancer progression. Ultimately, exercise may play an important role in improving long-term clinical outcomes and save significant medical costs related to prostate cancer treatment in Canada."
A total of $19.2 million was allotted to 30 UAlberta researchers through the Government of Canada's Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant.