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During CAR-T cell therapy, a blood sample is taken from the patient after all other treatment options have been exhausted. The immune cells in that sample are isolated, reengineered in a lab and multiplied to fight the cancer. They are then infused back into the patient. In a successful treatment, the CAR-T cells will continue to multiply and begin to recognize and kill cancer cells.

In 2024, Hollings enrolled its first blood cancer patients in a clinical trial to receive our own, patented version of these purified CAR-T cells. The trial was so successful, it enabled the researchers to secure a large grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to continue their work. By building up its own program, thanks to the help of LOWVELO riders, Hollings is making this cutting-edge treatment much more accessible to patients across South Carolina.

Thanks to more recent funding from LOWVELO, Hollings researcher Leo Ferreira, Ph.D., is taking the success of CAR-T cell therapy with blood cancers and attempting to replicate it for solid tumors, like pancreatic cancer.

“LOWVELO is a great community, above all,” said Ferreira, who also has ridden in every LOWVELO event since arriving at Hollings in 2021. “You feel like a family. Cancer is not against one of us, it’s against all of us. So, it gives me a renewed sense of hope that our efforts combined in the research, and the fundraising, and the getting together as a group of people can really help defeat this disease once and for all.”

The funds from LOWVELO have also been used to train the next generation of scientists, physicians and researchers, to better support survivors, to explore a new approach to fighting breast cancer, to help manage patients with a higher risks of hereditary cancers and many other projects.

LOWVELO will return for its seventh year on Nov. 1. Registration is now open with an early bird incentive that runs through midnight on March 11. Riders can sign up for any route – 7, 14, 23, 50 or 80 miles or the stationary ride – with just a $300 fundraising commitment. After March 11, those commitments will increase for most routes. The LOWVELO team hopes to register at least 2,300 riders for this year’s event with a fundraising goal of $1.4 million.

“We’ve had a lot of growth,” said Winn. “And the impact of it all, aside from great exposure and a good time riding bikes is that this money goes straight into the kitty for Hollings research to fund the work that’s happening right now – projects we can’t wait 10 years to get to.”