Melanoma Research at CPMC 

We did it! Thanks to generous donations to Ride-On for Melanoma Research, a patient suite has been named in honor of Shawn Price on the cancer unit of CPMC’s Van Ness Hospital. This proud event also recognized Shawn’s birthday - he would have been 60 years old on September 6, 2023.

To honor Shawn’s competitive spirit, together we raised over $30,000 to benefit ground-breaking research at CPMC’s Center for Melanoma Research, with medical director Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, M.D. and team members who were involved with Shawn’s care including doctors Ari Baron and Brian Andrews. These funds help advance their collective work seeking new treatments for melanoma patients, such as these recent achievements:

• A new cancer treatment pathway that overcomes resistance to targeted melanoma therapy
• Personalized prognostic tools that help predict whether melanoma will spread to lymph nodes

Ride-On for Melanoma Research

We salute Mark Seiler for his tenacity and grit over three years of off-road motorcycle racing to honor his friend Shawn Price’s winning spirit, and to raise money for CPMC’s Melanoma Center and its research.

Mark raced in the NORRA 1000 and NORRA 500 in Baja California, Mexico on Shawn's revamped Honda 2001 Xr650r. In 2019 Mark suffered a crash, and in April 2021 his bike engine blew only a few miles to the finish line. In October 2021, Mark won the NORRA 500, crushing the competition and winning 1st place overall. 

In Memory of Shawn Price

On October 25, 2016, Shawn Price passed away at the age of 53 after a short battle with melanoma cancer. Shawn Price lived life large and at full speed whether it was racing across the desert, leading in the tech world, or as a passionate family man. Shawn was a pioneering software executive as the SVP of Cloud at Oracle Corporation, EVP Cloud at SAP, President of Zuora and CEO at Savvion. In his personal life, he continuously sought to excel at new adventures and sports and any challenge that came his way, including winning the 2005 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona endurance sports car race in a Porsche GT3; completing the 7,000 mile Paris to Dakar Rally endurance motorcycle race in Northern Africa; and winning the 2002 Baja 1000, a 1,000 mile motorcycle race in the Baja California desert.

When Shawn was diagnosed with undetected late-stage melanoma, the CPMC team of Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, M.D., Medical Director, CPMC Cancer Center and Center for Melanoma Research and Treatment; Brian Andrews, M.D., Chair of CPMC Department of Neurosciences; and Ari Baron, M.D., Chief of CPMC Division of Hematology Oncology provided Shawn with innovative treatment options and unparalleled patient care.

Your Gift Helps Save Lives

Give Now to help CPMC discover and test effective new treatment options for melanoma. "We have the potential to significantly accelerate the evolution of personalized cancer care.” — Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, M.D., Medical Director, CPMC Cancer Center and CPMC’s Center for Melanoma Research and Treatment.