At first glance, the connection between a group of avid motorcyclists and a team of dedicated Brock University researchers may not be immediately clear.

But the two groups have united around a common goal: making prostate cancer a distant memory.

“The funding provided to my research group from the Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation’s Ride for Dad is extremely essential and has allowed us to pursue cutting-edge research that could have never been started without the funds,” says Brock University Professor of Health Sciences Evangelia Tsiani.

For more than a decade, Tsiani and team have been studying the impact of polyphenols, micronutrients that naturally occur in plants, on cancer cells. The team aims to identify new therapeutic targets and pharmacological interventions to counteract cancer cell growth.

She published a study in 2016 showing how polyphenols contained in rosemary extract halted the survival and spread of lung cancer cells by disrupting the cancer cells’ signalling pathways, a series of chemical reactions that transmit information within the cell, resulting in a specific action.

A year later, Tsiani learned about Ride for Dad. She met Matthew King, Co-Chair of Ride for Dad’s Niagara Chapter, at an event and a partnership was born. The next Ride for Dad in Niagara will be held Saturday, June 15.

“Dr. Tsiani’s research on plant polyphenols is groundbreaking and may assist men with prostate cancer to survive longer,” says King. “Ride for Dad is always looking for new and innovative research opportunities, so we asked her to submit a proposal and we accepted it.”

For the past 24 years, the national Ride for Dad program has been raising money to fight prostate cancer, which affects about one in eight Canadian men and is the third leading cause of death from cancer among men in Canada according to the Canadian Cancer Society.

The Niagara Chapter was founded in 2010. Since then, King says 2,444 riders have raised $790,000 to fund prostate cancer research.

His group awarded Tsiani a grant of $24,000 in 2018 to investigate how plant-derived chemicals with strong anticancer effects can be used to prevent and treat prostate cancer. Tsiani has received three more grants for a total of $136,000 in funding from the Niagara chapter.

With the support she received, Tsiani and her team discovered how a chemical found in rosemary extract called carnosic acid inhibited cancer cells’ growth similarly to effect seen with the chemotherapy drug docetaxel.

More research is needed to determine if this is an effective treatment, says Tsiani, adding that  carnosic acid may have fewer side effects than conventional treatments or may boost chemotherapy and radiation therapies if successfully developed into a drug.

As well as supporting research, another significant benefit of the Ride for Dad funding is the training of graduate students to create “a highly skilled labor force with the ability to think critically and apply their knowledge to develop approaches and solutions against cancer,” she says.

For his part, King says research bringing effective treatments and a possible cure to those living with prostate cancer will be life-changing, especially for his members and others battling the disease.

“We’re a team of dedicated volunteers who are just trying to have some fun and at the same time support prostate cancer research in our own backyard,” says King.

Registration for the June 15 event is still open for those wanting to participate. Tsiani says some of her lab members will attend the event.