“Put simply, the PMC is extending the lives of millions with cancer.”
I like numbers, so here are a few:
- Your support has helped Dana-Farber to play a substantial role in advancing more than half of all cancer therapies approved by the FDA from 2018 to 2022.
- “Bolstered by resources from the PMC, [Dana-Farber] helped launch a revolution in multiple myeloma care with the approval of Velcade (bortezomib) in 2003. Before Dana-Farber pioneered this therapy, no new medicines to treat the condition had been approved by the FDA for many years. Today, 19 therapies are approved for treating multiple myeloma – many advanced at [Dana-Farber] with PMC support – and patients are now living three to five times longer after diagnosis than could be expected two decades ago.”
- With the help of the $1 billion raised by the PMC to date, and the work done at Dana-Farber, “the number of cancer survivors in the United States has grown from less than 5 million in 1980 to more than 19 million in 2024, and the five-year survival rate grew from 50% to 68%. Put simply, the PMC is extending the lives of millions with cancer.”
- According to a 2023 op-ed in the New York Times, the cancer death rate has declined by 1/3rd over the past 30 years.
I like to keep all these numbers in mind (except as noted, all stats and quotes are from M. Quinn, “PMC Surpasses $1 Billion in Funds Raised for Dana-Farber,“ Paths of Progress 2025).
But I also try to keep in mind that cancer is intensely personal to each of us; if we haven’t been diagnosed ourselves, we have all lost friends and loved ones to it, and we all know people who are fighting it today. Three members of Team Eric Chase are currently under treatment for cancer right now. That’s personal.
I wrote last year about a PMC photo of a boy who appeared to be about five. He held a sign along the PMC route reading “You ride. I get to grow older.” I don’t even know that child’s name, but cancer is certainly personal to him. To his parents. And, thanks to that photo, to me.
The PMC even enabled me to tell my own story in this 2021 video. That story remains very much the same today, and my lymphoma remains background noise. But each year I’ve continued to add names to my mental “riding in honor of” list and I’ve been forced to shift other names from that list to my “riding in memory of” list. Yes, that’s personal, too.
Meanwhile, I’m grateful to be alive, grateful to be able to do this at least one more time, and grateful for your support.
Thank you, Carl
