PMC Surpasses $1 Billion in Funds Raised for Dana-Farber
November 18, 2024
Progress against cancer is rooted in purpose and partnership—the determination of thousands of passionate people coming together to do something about a disease that affects millions. After Billy Starr lost his mother to melanoma nearly five decades ago, he launched a fundraising movement that fueled unprecedented advances at Dana-Farber and shows no signs of slowing down.
Founded in 1980, the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC), a Massachusetts-based bike-a-thon and the nation's most successful single athletic fundraising event, surpassed $1 billion in lifetime fundraising for Dana-Farber. After hitting this extraordinary milestone in July, the PMC blazed past it to generate a record-breaking $75 million in 2024, pushing the PMC's total to $1.047 billion raised since its founding in 1980.
Driving this tremendous success was the 45th PMC ride held August 3-4, 2024, when more than 6,800 riders from 45 states and territories and 10 countries pedaled 16 routes ranging from 25 to 211 miles across Massachusetts or reimagined their rides in locations of their choosing. They were supported by more than 3,500 volunteers, more than 200 corporate sponsors, and 350,000 individual contributions. The PMC's historic campaign also included PMC Winter Cycle, an annual spin event at Fenway Park; PMC Unpaved, a gravel ride in Western Massachusetts; and PMC Kids Rides, where children raise funds through mini bike-a-thons in their local communities.
The PMC has come a long way since Starr and 35 friends hit the road for its first ride in 1980, raising $10,200 for Dana-Farber. According to Starr, it did not go as planned. Everyone got lost, the food ran out, the ferry did not run, and he was unceremoniously thrown into Provincetown Bay by his mates. "I thought it was a disaster," he said. "But on the bus ride home, everyone kept talking about 'next year, next year.'" Starr knew he had started something special, and so did the PMC's committed riders and volunteers, whose numbers grew from just 46 people in 1980 to more than 10,000 in 2024.
As PMC participation increased, so did its annual gift to Dana-Farber and importance to the Institute's work. Today, the PMC, which donates 100% of every rider-raised dollar to Dana-Farber, is the Institute's largest single contributor, accounting for more than 62% of the Jimmy Fund's annual revenue.
This strong support has played an integral and impactful role at the Institute, according to Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber president and CEO, and 6-year PMC rider. "For over four and a half decades, the PMC has shown the world the power of cycling by raising awareness and funding for Dana-Farber," said Ebert. "Its impact can be felt from bench to bedside and beyond, allowing the Institute to invest in innovative research, patient-first care, and global leaders in cancer medicine."
Transforming Clinical Trials and Patient Care
The PMC's fingerprints can be found in every breakthrough at Dana-Farber. For example, immunotherapy, which today is the standard used to treat many cancers, arose from innovative basic research discoveries made at the Institute that relied on support from the PMC. Since then, Dana-Farber researchers have explored ways to extend immunotherapy's benefits to even more patients. The Institute's team led the first trials of immunotherapies and cancer vaccines for melanoma, and their work helped produce multiple FDA approvals of new medicines that improved care and outcomes for melanoma patients, prompting further studies and strides across additional cancer types.
For Dana-Farber researchers, funding from the PMC offers the freedom to innovate and take risks — to make the "big bets" that are at the heart of true discovery science. Cigall Kadoch, PhD, a Dana-Farber researcher and expert in chromatin and gene regulation, is grateful for PMC funding, which has helped propel her groundbreaking investigations in cancer biology that have sparked trials of new treatments for multiple cancers.
"Some of our lab's most powerful discoveries have emerged from brand new thinking that comes unexpectedly and leads us in an entirely new direction," Kadoch explains. "It's exactly that kind of new research that the PMC supports."
PMC funding also fueled the growth of Dana-Farber's clinical trials program into one of the nation's largest, with more than 1,100 studies offered every year. As a result, the Institute is a national leader in drug development, having played a substantial role in advancing more than half of all cancer therapies approved by the FDA from 2018-2022.
The success of Dana-Farber's Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center in accelerating new treatments exemplifies the impact of PMC funding for clinical trials. Bolstered by resources from the PMC, Institute investigators 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 the Institute with PMC support — and patients are now living three to five times longer after diagnosis than could be expected two decades ago.
Paul Richardson, MD, clinical program leader and director of clinical research in the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and the R.J. Corman Professor of Medicine, emphasized the PMC's importance in keeping promising treatments moving forward from the lab to the clinic, and then to approval.
"Philanthropy from the PMC is fundamental because government funding has decreased over time, while support from industry is often connected to specific projects and subject to certain conditions," said Richardson, a two-year PMC rider. "PMC funding really primes the pump, and without it we might not even get off the ground or past the starting line, let alone across the finishing line."
Expanding Dana-Farber's Reach
Support from the PMC also strengthens Institute programs that are improving access to care and addressing cancer disparities, ensuring more patients benefit from this progress. For instance, PMC funding helped Dana-Farber's Cancer Care Equity Program double in size over the past five years, enabling the Institute to increase its team of community-facing patient navigators, build relationships with neighborhood clinics, and expand research into the causes of and interventions for health inequities. PMC resources help power the Institute's Mammography Van and Blum Family Resource Center Van, which both bring life-saving cancer education, detection, and prevention services directly to communities throughout Greater Boston.
Christopher Lathan, MD, MPH, chief clinical access and equity officer and the Christopher and Constance Hadley Family Chair at Dana-Farber, credits PMC funding for helping the program provide patients with streamlined pathways to the Institute's expert care — no matter their ZIP code or socio-economic background. He said, "With PMC support, we are making real progress to eliminate structural barriers for patients, in order to make sure that nothing stands between lifesaving cancer care and everyone who needs it."
Another important way PMC funding extends Dana-Farber's impact is by helping to expand the Institute's footprint and attract top-tier talent. With support from the PMC, Dana-Farber more than doubled in size in recent years, going from approximately 1.22 million square feet in 2000 to more than 2.83 million square feet in 2024. This new space includes three world-class patient-care facilities built in the past five years, as well as dynamic research labs like the Longwood Center, the Institute's state-of-the art hub of leading-edge cancer science.
In parallel, resources from the PMC help Dana-Farber to recruit and retain renowned faculty from around the globe, including more than 125 physicians named to Boston magazine's "Top Doctors" list and 34 investigators on the Highly Cited Researchers list from the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate, which identifies scientists who produced multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their discipline and year of publication.
An Impact Like No Other
More research, better care, greater reach, optimal facilities and faculty, and maximal progress — this is what $1 billion from the PMC has made possible at Dana-Farber. As a result, 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, including the more than 1,100 PMC riders and volunteers who, as cancer patients and survivors treated, are considered Living Proof of the PMC's mission and impact.
It is no wonder that the PMC is widely cherished as an indomitable force for hope, healing, and humanity. "The PMC is the ultimate example of what it means to make the world a better place for patients with cancer and their families," said Kenneth Anderson, MD, program director, Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine. "The PMC is giving them life and hope, and there is no greater gift than this."
For Ebert and the more than 160 Dana-Farber doctors and staff who participated in 2024, the PMC is much more than a bike ride — it is a lifeline for the Institute's mission to defy cancer. "The PMC is an experience like none other," Ebert said. "I am honored to ride each summer with this committed community, which inspires us all at Dana-Farber and empowers everything we do to improve patients' lives."
In celebrating a year that was truly "one in a billion," Starr knows the committed PMC community is ready for more. "I am immensely grateful to everyone who has contributed to this $1 billion fundraising achievement," Starr said. "Together, we're setting up the road to the next billion and even greater progress in bringing cures closer by the mile."
