Thousands take the Anti-Cancer Challenge, raising over $1 million for critical research
Funds raised will drive pioneering studies for cancer prevention, treatment and cures
Orange, Calif. — A record 4,600 participants joined the 2025 UC Irvine Anti-Cancer Challenge to support lifesaving research at the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and its pediatric affiliate CHOC, part of Rady Children's Health.
The ninth annual event, held Oct. 11 on the university campus in Irvine, raised more than $1.1 million, reflecting the community’s increasing commitment to funding innovative cancer research and clinical trials that advance treatments and seek potential cures.
This brings the total raised to $7.3 million since 2017, when Orange County’s premiere cycling rally was founded. Every dollar raised has gone directly to support more than 150 pilot projects, early phase clinical trials and ambitious translational research efforts.
“Over nine years, we've turned $7.3 million in community support into $60 million in additional research funding as these projects go on to receive extramural grants,” said Anti-Cancer Challenge founder Richard A. Van Etten, MD, PhD, director of the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in Orange County.
“This is how we continue to advance treatments and improve outcomes for cancer patients here in Orange County and beyond.”
Event day excitement
UC Irvine School of Medicine Dean Michael J. Stamos, MD, and Van Etten started the day waving cyclists onto road routes of 14 to 100 miles, mountain bikers through Crystal Cove State Park and other participants on a 5K run/walk around the UC Irvine campus.
The day also featured a wellness festival and a UCI Health pavilion offering community health education. Entertainment included the Anaheim Ducks Street Team, a special performance by dancers with the Onco-Ballet Foundation as well as live musicians.
KTLA Orange County Bureau Chief Chip Yost returned as this year’s emcee for the 5K opening ceremony. He also interviewed Farshid Dayyani, MD, PhD, a UCI Health medical oncologist who collaborated with surgical oncologist Maheswari Senthil, MD, to develop STOPGAP, an early phase clinical trial that was among the first pilot projects supported by the 2017 Anti-Cancer Challenge.
National impact
The STOPGAP clinical trial was developed to find a better treatment for advanced stomach cancer, a disease that disproportionately affects Latinos and younger adults. The response has been overwhelming since the trial opened in 2021, with participants seeking the innovative treatment from beyond the local region.
Senthil is now the national principal investigator of STOPGAP II, a newly opened, randomized phase 2/3 clinical trial that expands the study to more than 50 leading U.S. gastric and peritoneal malignancy programs, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic and cancer centers at Stanford, Emory, Duke and Yale universities as part of the prestigious National Clinical Trials Network.
The new study — supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group — represents an important step toward filling a critical gap in the care of patients with advanced stomach cancer and has the potential to significantly change treatment approaches for the disease.
Senthil and Dayyani credit the initial Anti-Cancer Challenge funding with making this research possible.
Celebrating honorees
Event day also included an awards ceremony, featuring Newport Beach resident Bransby Whitton, who accepted the 2025 patient honoree award for his inspiring journey from diagnosis to becoming a strong advocate for UCI Health and the cancer center.
Whitton discovered a lump in his abdomen in late 2021 on a holiday trip. In early 2022, a biopsy revealed it was an especially aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A friend connected him with UCI Health and within a few days, renowned lymphoma expert Lauren Pinter-Brown, MD, started him on the first of six rounds of primary chemotherapy.
“I feel so fortunate to have found UCI Health and Dr. Pinter-Brown, who gave me world-class care,” said Whitton. Pinter-Brown was in attendance as Van Etten presented the award to her patient.
The awards ceremony concluded with a $1 million check presented by Kure It Cancer Research for the Kure It Cancer Research Endowed Chair in Genitourinary Oncology Research at the cancer center.
Dedicated sponsors and teams
This year’s Anti-Cancer Challenge sponsors included Hensel Phelps, the Anaheim Ducks, the Honda Center, the Kanani Advisory Group, Daiichi Sankyo and TALG Law.
Our 2025 Partners in Research — individuals, teams and corporations that raise or donate $50,000 or more to the UCI Anti-Cancer Challenge — include steadfast supporters such as Answer for Cancer, Monster Energy Cares, Hensel Phelps, Team Michelle, Hyundai Hope on Wheels, Lynn Capouya Inc., Driving Out Cancer, Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Co., Team Chao Family/Merage School, Celluma Light Therapy and Team Keenan.
Participant-let teams have been crucial to the Anti-Cancer Challenge's success. This year, 306 teams participated, including Team FC (From Colorado), led by Arthur Polner, who signed up in March while undergoing immunotherapy treatment. After receiving care at UCI Health, Polner returned to Colorado, where he rallied friends and family to form an Anti-Cancer Challenge team.
On event day, Polner flew in with his wife, family and friends to complete a 35-mile ride. Team FC raised over $33,000 for cancer research.
“The Anti-Cancer Challenge gave me a framework to address my treatment positively,” he said. “All the money raised goes directly to research. I'm on immunotherapy instead of chemotherapy and seeing results quickly. That's why supporting this research is so vital.”
Every dollar raised this year will be awarded to novel studies submitted by the cancer center’s clinician researchers and basic scientists. The awards will be announced next year.
Donors interested in supporting cancer research and participating in the 10th annual Anti-Cancer Challenge — to be held Oct. 10, 2026 — may reach out at anti-cancerchallenge@uci.edu.
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UCI Health, one of California’s largest academic health systems, is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. The 1,317-bed system comprises its main campus UCI Medical Center, its flagship hospital in Orange, Calif., the UCI Health — Irvine medical campus, four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and a network of ambulatory care centers across the region. UCI Medical Center provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to the only Orange County-based National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).