Motorcycle Ride for Dad - Canada

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Funding Prostate Cancer Research

Net proceeds from Motorcycle Ride For Dad events across Canada are distributed by the Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation on behalf of the Motorcycle Ride For Dad, to benefit the region where the funds are raised.

The goal of the Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation and the Motorcycle Ride For Dad is to award research grants for new and innovative breakthrough science; research that can make a difference in prostate cancer. 

Your support is helping to make a difference in prostate cancer reasearch!

Ottawa Hospital Foundation: da Vinci Robotics Research
The Motorcycle Ride For Dad and the Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation are supporting critical research in connection with the Ottawa Hospital’s da Vinci robotics program that will forge new ground in robotics research not being explored elsewhere at this time. Click here to read more about this exciting project!

"The Motorcycle Ride For Dad has been extremely generous in their support of the fight against prostate cancer" Jennifer Van Noort, Vice-President, Major Gifts at the Ottawa Hospital Foundation.

BC Cancer Foundation: Immune System Response to Prostate Cancer
Thanks to our generous supporters, over the last 3-5 years, scientists at the BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Island Centre have made two major findings by studying how the immune system responds to prostate cancer. In the first study, approximately 30% of patients who received standard hormone and radiation therapy had a positive immune response against their prostate cancer. In a second study, utilizing a mouse model for prostate cancer, researchers discovered that this type of immune response to radiation and hormone therapy unexpectedly caused a detrimental outcome – that is, mice succumbed sooner to their prostate cancer.

Based on this research, the lab is launching a new study to determine whether immunotherapies can be administered to reverse these poor immune responses and ultimately improve overall survival rates of prostate cancer. Their researchers are now embarking on a pre-clinical study to use a clinically approved drug that stimulates the immune system, anti-CTLA4, combined with standard hormone and radiation therapies. The success of our work will then allow us to launch the first human clinical trial with anti-CTLA4 at the BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Island Centre within the next 2-3 years.

"We are indebted to the Motorcycle Ride For Dad for the excellent and ongoing support in helping to raise awareness and funds to support our research, as we endeavor to discover new therapies which will ultimately improve the lives of patients affected by prostate cancer." Julian J. Lum, Ph.D, CIHR New Investigator, Scientist, Deeley Research Centre, BC Cancer Agency

Sudbury Regional Hospital: Genetic Variations and Adverse Side Effects
The study will determine whether small genetic variations have something to do with the development of adverse side effects in some prostate cancer patients who choose radiation therapy.

Some men who undergo radiation therapy develop toxicity, and other side effects which really lessen their quality of life while they're being treated, there could be a genetic cause for this. This study will to try to find it, and determine which prostate cancer patients are best suited to radiation therapy. The goal is to make treatment for prostate cancer more effective and less stressful on the patient.

"This new study is a great example of the kind of research hospital we aspire to be, research leads to better health care, and the more research we can do, as close to our patients as possible, the better the results." Denis Roy, CEO, Sudbury Regional Hospital

Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation: Dr. Richard Wassersug, Anatomy & Neurobiology, to see if estrogen can improve sleep quality in androgen-deprived males
Androgen-deprivation is commonly used to slow the progression of advanced prostate cancer, by starving the cancer of such hormones as testosterone, which tends to drive tumour growth. Current medications can lead not only to osteoporosis, hot flashes, fatigue and cognitive impairment, but also to insomnia and sleep disturbances. Dr. Richard Wassersug is using his Ride for Dad grant to see if non-oral estrogen can improve the quantity and quality of sleep in androgen-deprived male rodents. Estrogen has already proven helpful in females and may provide an answer for men with prostate cancer who are suffering from sleep loss.

Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation: Dr. Roy Duncan, Microbiology & Immunology and Pediatrics, to explore the potential of myopodin as a marker of invasive prostate cancer
While prostate cancer is deadly when it spreads, most prostate cancers do not metastasize. Many men and their physicians therefore opt for the ‘watchful waiting’ approach, regularly monitoring the progress of the cancer to determine if steps should be taken to treat the cancer, either by radiation or by removing the prostate. Accurately reading the invasiveness of the cancer is crucial, because the treatments come with a high risk of urinary, bowel and sexual complications. Dr. Roy Duncan and his research team are exploring myopodin, a protein which is found in lower levels in invasive cancers. The researchers want to learn how myopodin is involved in or affected by prostate cancer metastasis, and if it could be used as a marker to predict how invasive a patient’s prostate cancer may be. This is vital research, because the current PSA test provides many false positives and does not predict the invasiveness of prostate cancer.

The Ride For Dad has also granted research funding to the following organizations: