Before the Victory Bell ringings, the celebrations and the breakthrough treatments — there’s been research. That’s where progress begins. And right there, at the start line, is Empire State Ride.
Since 2014, funds raised by ESR participants have helped drive advancements in cancer research, 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 ESR 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 against cancer.
- 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; Director, Center for Precision Oncology and Cancer Prevention
More Than a Decade of Progress
Dr. Ohm, who began her work in cancer research in 1997, had this answer to what has changed over the past decades 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 Empire State Ride.
An Idea -> A Breakthrough
Mukund Seshadri leads Roswell Park’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), which oversees the competitive review process used to award research grants through the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation. These grants are what researchers call seed funding.
“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 these grants, which help launch new research initiatives that may one day lead to new treatments, diagnostics or prevention strategies. Philanthropic dollars, from events like Empire State Ride, help make this research possible. Top Empire State Ride fundraisers, who raise $20,000 or more, known as Excelsior Riders, even have the opportunity to designate a SAC grant to support a specific research project.
Dr. Seshadri reflected on receiving one of these grants early in his career when he was an assistant professor.
“When someone asks you what’s their return on investment, I’m the return on their investment.” Dr. Seshadri added, “So [the ESR 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. 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 on both the bench and the bedside.
“My department is called clinical genomics, and we take care of people and families that are 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 Empire State Ride 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 ESR 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 12 years and more than $12 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 it 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 Empire State Ride, and thank you for believing what we know to be true: Research Matters.