Due to advances in technology, research scientists like Jeffrey Tredup are able to design powerful drugs to attack cancer cells. But without clinical trials, no one would know how these drugs actually work on cancer in the body.

These two parts of the cancer research equation came into clearer focus for Jeffrey more than four years ago, when he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
As a scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Jeffrey specializes in protein biochemistry, creating substances that may bind to a protein and stop cancers from growing. Now that he’s living with cancer, the task has taken on a new sense of urgency.

Jeffrey still has cancer – blood tests show the cells remain in his body. But he doesn’t allow it to define who he is, and he wants others to realize they, too, can go on living with cancer. “I want to share that you can move on, that it’s tough but you have to move on,” he says. “Cancer and I go out to lunch, we have dinner together – it’s there! It hasn’t stopped me from going to work and from cycling.”

Scientists like Jeffrey devote their careers to finding drugs that will help treat diseases such as cancer. “I live my life every day on the front lines of cancer research and I always hope that someday my work will be used to help people,” he says.

Riding as a member of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope™ Team gives Jeffrey a chance to do something different for the cancer cause, as a scientist and a survivor. He will use experiences in both roles to demonstrate the importance of clinical trials as the best way to better cancer treatments and an eventual cure.