Before the Victory Bell ringings, the celebrations and the breakthrough treatments — there’s research. That’s where progress begins. And right there, at the start line, is Ride for Roswell.
For more than 30 years, funds raised by Ride participants have helped drive advancements in cancer research and patient care, breakthroughs that are saving lives today. To help put that impact into perspective, Roswell Park experts share why Research Matters and how the dollars raised through Ride are shaping the future of how we understand and treat cancer.
Roswell Park Experts Weigh In
The theme of the discussion, Research Matters, ties into a larger campaign across Roswell Park, highlighting the significance of science in the fight again cancer.
The experts below shared their input on why Research Matters:
- Mukund Seshadri, Dean, Office of Cancer Education and Training; Chair, Department of Oral Oncology
- Joyce Ohm, Chair of Cancer Genetics and Genomics
- Kenan Onel, Chief, Clinical Genomics and Director, Center for Precision Oncology and Cancer Prevention
30+ Years of Ride | 30+ Years of Progress
Dr. Ohm, who began her work in cancer research in 1997, had this answer to what has changed over the three decades since Ride started when it comes to treating patients: everything.
“When I first started, we had literally three treatments, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. And those are still the mainstream treatments by which we treat our patients and they work and they do wonderful things,” said Dr. Ohm. “But many [fundraisers] are patients, survivors, or have family members who’ve been treated here. They started to hear a lot of different words in the hospital. Things like immunotherapy, targeted therapy, biologics, antibody-based therapy, small molecule inhibitors.”
She explained that today, when patients come in, they get not generic treatments, but targeted options that are meant to treat their individual cancers in the best possible way.
Every one of these new approaches started in a lab. Many of them were funded by dollars raised through Ride for Roswell.
An Idea -> A Breakthrough
Since Ride started, donations have funded more than 500 research initiatives. Dr. Seshadri, who leads Roswell Park’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), broke down what it takes to turn an idea into a breakthrough.
“Literally true to the word, it’s seed funding. It’s an idea that at the stage of the seed, your donor dollars give it the water and fertilizer and everything else that’s needed for that seed to grow into a plant and hopefully a big tree that lasts,” said Dr. Seshadri.
Each year, Roswell Park scientists apply for grants from the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation (RPAF), which are awarded through a competitive review process led by SAC. Philanthropic dollars, from events like Ride for Roswell, are what give SAC the power to fund projects that bring new discoveries closer to patients.
Dr. Seshadri reflected on his first time receiving RPAF funds to kickstart one of his research initiatives. This was more than 20 years ago, when he was an assistant professor, but that experience helped him understand the real-life impact of donor dollars.
“When someone asks you what’s their return investment, I’m the return on their investment.” Dr. Seshadri added, “So [the Ride Community], has literally provided that seed funding to countless projects across our cancer center that have gone from the whole spectrum of a simple idea in the laboratory to a clinical trial, to a quality-of-life proposal. You name it in the whole gamut. You have made it possible.”
World-Class Research at Roswell Park
From its inception in 1898, Roswell Park identified cancer research as a core element of its mission. Since then, groundbreaking research by Roswell scientists has led to greater understanding of the nature of cancer and to major advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Roswell Park has been designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a comprehensive cancer center for more than four decades. That means when you raise funds for Roswell Park, you’re supporting some of the top cancer care and research in the country … if not the world.
Dr. Onel is a physician scientist, so he sees the impact of the dollars raised from both the bench and the bedside.
“My department is called clinical genomics, and we take care of people and families that are at an increased risk for cancer because of their genes or because of their family history. We perform genetic testing and then we do something that actually doesn’t exist anywhere else in the country,” said Dr. Onel. “We actually created the world’s first medical home for people and families that are increased risk for cancer because of their genes or family history. It’s baffling to me why it’s not everywhere, but it’s not. We’re the first and the only one.”
By making new discoveries about cancer every day — how it grows, how to detect it, how to stop it — and using these discoveries to set the global standards for how to treat it, we not only save the lives of patients who walk through our doors, we help to save lives across the world.
Why Fundraise? Why Now?
Cancer research has always been imperative, but in today’s climate, that sentiment is especially true. The need for philanthropic funds to fill the gap in federal funding is urgent.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the NCI fund most of the cancer research across the world; that’s the big money pool. However, right now, only about 4% of grants are being funded. So how does a researcher make sure their project doesn’t fall in the other 96% percent that goes unfunded?
“What you have to do is you have to have a great idea. You have to have an amazing team. You have to have a lot of preliminary data. While the NCI funds most of our research, the most important research dollars that we get come from you riding a bike. I ride my bike too,” emphasized Dr. Ohm. “Those dollars fund the pilot projects. They fund the new idea. They let us ask a new question. They let us take a new direction. They let us get that missing piece of data that I need to convince those reviewers at the NCI that idea is really, really good and it’s going to work.”
Funds raised by Ride for Roswell participants like you are the change agent. Your efforts are what will bridge that gap, and your passion for this cause is what will save lives. There are patients today still searching for one more option — and Roswell Park researchers, hand-in-hand with the Ride Community, are committed to bringing those innovations to the people who need them most.
The Mission to End Cancer
The word “cure” is one seldom used in talking about cancer. But, after 30+ years and more than $86 million raised, its meaning has evolved.
“There probably is not going to be one cure for cancer, but I can tell you that we are curing individual patients’ cancers today,” said Dr. Ohm. “And we’re doing that with increasing frequency. There are more and more survivors every day that walk out of here and they live long, happy lives, and they get to spend time with their families. And it’s amazing.”
That transition is because of you. And it’s also because of you that we believe ending cancer as we know is within reach, but we can’t stop now. In fact, now is the time we need to pick up the pace, with our sights locked on the finish line.
Thank you for making a difference through Ride for Roswell, and thank you for believing what we know to be true: Research Matters.