Self-described serial entrepreneur Tom Milana was not expecting a routine doctor’s appointment to turn into a mission to educate men about health and wellness. At just 48 years young, Milana was diagnosed with prostate cancer. That was 10 years ago.
An early diagnosis and intervention meant Milana was cured, but the path was set for Milana to establish what today has become a national charity saving men’s lives. The Milana family is not new to philanthropy, having established the Milana Family Foundation to raise money for children in need, but Milana’s diagnosis shifted the family’s and the Foundation’s priorities.
“If you build a better experience for men at the doctor’s office, more men will focus on their health,” Milana explained. Hence, the birth of Man Cave Health. The organization’s first project set out to create spaces in healthcare facilities that mirrored a men’s lounge with the goal of creating a comfortable environment for men to focus on their health.
The organization provides virtual support groups, education, and resources and launched a new initiative in 2024 focused on early detection of prostate cancer.
“More than 30,000 men a year die of prostate cancer, mainly because they find out too late,” Milana said.
Man Cave Health began offering mobile testing for prostate cancer and has tested more than 5,000 men, several of whom discovered elevated prostate specific antigen levels, which can indicate early signs of prostate cancer, enabling earlier diagnosis and intervention. By September of 2025, Man Cave Health will operate three mobile testing units across the country with the goal of launching 25 units over the next five years, providing “a welcoming space where men can access PSA tests, educational resources, and consultations in a comfortable, judgment-free environment,” according to mancavehealth.org.
Milana is used to seizing on opportunities, translating a background in finance into a successful restaurant business with five establishments on Long Island, including Stellina, in just five years. That propensity to continuously evolve has meant Man Cave Health is ever changing.
After a visit to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), Milana saw how funding prostate cancer research in Professor Lloyd Trotman’s lab aligned with the nonprofit’s mission to empower men with the tools and resources needed to be healthy. In fact, Milana and his wife Adriana are hosting a benefit concert this summer.
“When I visited Lloyd’s lab, I knew we had to support his work,” Milana said.
Trotman has pioneered research in prostate cancer, having generated a unique mouse model to test prostate cancer therapeutics and more recently developed 3-d imaging technology, enabling researchers to visualize cancer and metastatic progression.
In October 2024, Trotman published a study that found the pro-oxidant supplement menadione slows prostate cancer progression in mice. Menadione is a precursor to vitamin K, commonly found in leafy greens. The study was two decades in the making, having been developed after a study that started in 2001 by the National Cancer Institute showed that antioxidants failed to treat prostate cancer and in fact made it worse. Trotman thus tested the reverse theory that he now hopes to take into pilot studies with human prostate cancer patients.
“Our target group would be men who get biopsies and have an early form of the disease diagnosed,” Trotman says. “We wonder if they start to take the supplement, whether we would be able to slow that disease down.”
Trotman, who is also a resident of Oyster Bay, has been working on prostate cancer for more than 20 years, much of that time at CSHL.
“Lloyd’s focus is on finding a way to reverse metastasis and on how nutrition and vitamins can impact cancer development,” Milana said. “That is amazing stuff.”
Two Long Islanders are making a big difference in men’s health in their own way. The work of Man Cave Health has meant better outcomes for men’s health nationwide. Coupled with the work of Trotman’s lab, Milana and his nonprofit could impact the lives of men and their families for years to come.