Thousands ride, one mission

From battling two bouts of gastric lymphoma to spending hours on end in a laboratory developing better cancer diagnosis techniques, Dr. Howard Shapiro has devoted much of his life to cancer.

Now, the 66-year-old West Newton resident will enter the fund-raising arena as he joins the approximately 5,500 people riding in this weekend's Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, an annual bikeathon that benefits cancer research and treatment efforts. Since its inception in 1980, the event has raised more than $204 million for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Jimmy Fund, and organizers are hoping to raise another $34 million this year.

Although many riders bike the event's signature 190-mile, two-day course from Sturbridge to Provincetown, participants can choose among seven routes of varying length and difficulty. To be eligible for the Pan-Mass., they are required to raise between $1,300 and $4,000, depending on the course.

Cancer has been a central part of Shapiro's life since he was young. His father was among the first doctors to use chemotherapy and radiation to treat the disease, while his mother was a microbiologist. She died from lymphoma when Shapiro was in medical school.

"I think I was interested before she was sickened by it and I was more interested after she was sickened because I knew there was a lot of work that needed to be done," he said in a recent interview.

Shapiro worked at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, where he developed cell analysis instruments and performed clinical trials for new medications.

He then went on to become chief of cytokinetics at Dana-Farber in Boston. Shapiro now runs his own laboratory in Allston, where he designs instruments to help doctors in developing countries diagnose cancer.

"Instruments typically cost $100,000 or up and they are relatively large and not portable," he said. "But, because of some of the advances that are happening with consumer electronics, you can now make the instruments cheaper and simpler."

For example, light-emitting diodes found in cellphones and desktop computers provide the right shade of light needed to diagnose cancer in the field, away from the controlled hospital environment, Shapiro said.

"We can put diagnostics at the point of care and it doesn't matter if they are poor countries or rich ones," he said. In the past, "nobody extrapolated this to the poorer countries because the instruments were too expensive and too complicated. Now we can make instruments for the cost of a microscope with parts from a cellphone or iPod."

Cancer took a personal toll on Shapiro in 1991, when he was diagnosed with gastric lymphoma. A new lymphoma emerged in 2006. During both cases, Shapiro was treated with techniques he helped develop.

"Being a patient makes you a better doctor," he said. "It also just makes you think: 'A patient is not a collection of diagnoses; they all have stories and goals and ambitions.' "

Those stories plus his personal experiences and research are all motivating Shapiro, who bicycles to work every day, to ride the 44-mile Wellesley loop of the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge despite suffering a heart attack while training last month.

Stories like Shapiro's are a central theme for the weekend and a major motivating factor for donors and participants, said Billy Starr, the event's executive director and founder.

"The human component is at the center of this," said Starr, 57, of Wellesley. "The stories are endless."

Starr started the Pan-Mass. ride in memory of his mother, uncle and cousin, who all died from cancer in the 1970s. The first event drew 36 riders.

"I was looking for some way to cope with the grieving process and do something meaningful with my life," said Starr, an avid biker who still rides in the event every year.

"Biking is a neat sport. There's teamwork and it's an adventure and I thought I could put at the heart of it fund-raising for a cause close to my life."

Acton resident Dave Christmas is among those preparing for the 190-mile route on Saturday and Sunday. He first participated 12 years ago, after a friend's brother died of cancer. Christmas and his team of 28 cyclists raise money by selling T-shirts and decal tattoos.

"The idea was to create something people could identify with," Christmas, 54, said of the team's signature logo, which features a large, red tongue and the words "Lick Cancer."

At last year's event, they sold 800 to 900 T-shirts and 1,000 tattoos to fellow cyclists and spectators along the Pan-Mass. route, raising more than $5,000, Christmas said.

The team arrives at the starting point in Central Massachusetts in an old school bus covered with sayings and the logo.

"It really draws our team together," he said. "We ride it out to Sturbridge and it's a party bus. It really is a lot of fun."

Also making the journey this weekend are 37 members of the State Police. The officers will don matching blue cycling shirts, shorts, and helmets for the ride, Lieutenant Bill Coulter said.

"We feel that in our occupation we are role models and we want to be a positive role model," said Coulter, 56, of Stoughton, who is one of the team's cocaptains.

Coulter, riding in the Pan-Mass. Challenge for the first time, was diagnosed with throat cancer three years ago, and spent a year undergoing surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy.

"My attitude was just to dig in and win," he said. "I never had death as an option. It was just a matter of taking it one day at a time until I won."

While Coulter was successful, he knows of many other law-enforcement officers and their families who were less fortunate in their fight against cancer.

"It's a very important disease to us," he said. "I've known at least 10 state troopers who have died of cancer since I've been a state trooper, so it affects us all."

For more information about the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge or to see a list of some of the participating riders and their stories, visit pmc.org.