Sign up for Table of Contents Alerts.

Email this page

Print this page

News

Canary Foundation and Stanford University Announce Center of Excellence for Cancer Early Detection

This is an open-access article

 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.

Canary Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds research in early cancer detection, and Stanford University will announce today the commencement of a Center of Excellence for Cancer Early Detection. The Center formalizes a joint interest of Canary Foundation and Stanford University's Department of Radiology to advance molecular diagnostics with an emphasis in molecular imaging to pinpoint cancer while it is small. Canary Foundation celebrates this alliance with a pledge of $7.5 million, with $4 million to be matched by the Department of Radiology, slating a total of $11.5 million dollars for cancer early detection research.

This announcement also exemplifies a commitment between Canary Foundation and Stanford University's Cancer Center, which has recently received a National Cancer Institute designation. The Center of Excellence for Cancer Early Detection will be headed by Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, Professor of Radiology & Bioengineering, and Director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford.

The Center of Excellence will be formally announced tonight at a Welcome reception for the Canary Foundation's third annual National Early Detection Initiative Stakeholders Symposium, which takes place from May 22 - 24 at Stanford University.

"Cancer is still one of the greatest threats to our nation's families. But if detected early, the survival rate for cancer patients is 90 percent," said Don Listwin, founder and CEO of Canary Foundation. "Canary Foundation's strategy is to pursue short-term goals by funding research that will lead to simple blood and imaging tests that can identify and isolate cancers at their earliest points, when it is most treatable and chances for full recovery are greatest. We believe that our work with Stanford University's Center of Excellence for Cancer Early Detection and the Stanford Cancer Center will pave the way to early detection of multiple cancers that will inform all other major cancers. We are thrilled to contribute to this exciting and promising research."

Dr. Philip Pizzo, Dean of Stanford University School of Medicine said, "This type of alliance between Canary Foundation and Stanford University School of Medicine is enormously important. Canary Foundation as a nonprofit organization represents the community's desire to find answers to cancer, one of our nations leading health care issues. By combining our talents in innovation and discovery-based research with our commitment to advancing diagnosis, treatment and prevention, we are responding directly to that desire by partnering with Canary Foundation on these important projects."

The specific researchers who will receive funds from Canary Foundation's pledge will include Dr. Sanjiv Gambhir, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Gambhir's laboratory focuses on merging advances in molecular biology with those in biomedical imaging to advance the new field of molecular imaging. These imaging approaches are leading to much better ways to diagnose and manage diseases as well as allowing fundamental studies of cancer biology in living subjects.

"For the past 10 years, my research has focused on molecular imaging with the goal of identifying cancer at its earliest stage possible," said Dr. Gambhir. "I am honored that an organization like the Canary Foundation sees the potential in our work to save the lives of many."

Gary M. Glazer, M.D., who chairs the Stanford Department of Radiology, stated, "Stanford's Radiology Department has played a leading role in advancing the revolution in medical imaging, which has transformed patient care over the past several decades. The newly developing field of cellular and molecular imaging has immense promise for providing tools for the far earlier detection of cancer and the assessment of response to therapy than existing methods. We are delighted that the Canary Foundation has recognized this potential and the strengths of Stanford by generously contributing to create this Center of Excellence."

Dr. Beverly Mitchell, Deputy Director of Stanford's Cancer Center stated, "The curability of many cancers depends on early diagnosis and rapid medical intervention. Research into methods of early detection and the validation of these methods in patients will be a major focus of the Stanford Cancer Center. This gift from Canary Foundation is an extraordinary contribution to this effort. It will allow the Center to support promising new lines of research, especially in the areas of molecular imaging, nanotechnology and new proteomic methodologies. This research will require both creative science and clinical trials. The Cancer Center, in partnership with the Canary Foundation, will use the strength and ingenuity of its basic science and clinical faculty to make the promise of early detection of cancer a reality."

In addition to Dr. Gambhir's lab, another lab that will receive funds from Canary Foundation pledge will be that of Dr. Patrick Brown. His laboratory works with DNA microarrays to better understand how the molecular microenvironment influences the survival and proliferation of normal and cancer cells, with the goal of identifying patterns of gene expression that can be used to detect cancers and predict their potential for progression or response to specific therapies. Others who will receive funding include Dr. James Brooks, known for his research into the treatment of prostate cancer, and Dr. Simon Fredriksson of the Stanford Genome Technology Center who has been studying proximity ligation technology.

Background

Cancer strikes one in three women and one in two men in the United States, and more than 570,000 die from it each year. But survival rates improve dramatically when cancer is diagnosed early, and the disease is confined to the organ of origin. For example, since 1950, there has been a 70 percent decline in cervical cancer incidence and deaths thanks to a simple screening test, the Pap test. However, early detection diagnostic tools do not exist for many cancers, and those that do exist are not blood-based, such as the colonoscopy and mammogram.

Canary Foundation's National Early Detection Initiative Stakeholders Symposium

Since 2005, Canary Foundation has held a two-day symposium for to bring together members of the extended Canary Foundation Network, including leading academic leaders, researchers, clinicians, as well as governmental, commercial and foundational partners. This event is held to foster the exchange of ideas and development and to eliminate the artificial barriers that can exist between institutions and organizations. For more information about the Canary Foundation, or the third annual National Early Detection Initiative Stakeholders Symposium to be held May 22-24, please visit www.canaryfoundation.org .

About Canary Foundation

Canary Foundation is named after the "early detection" role canaries once played by alerting coal miners of hazardous fumes. The Foundation is the nation's only nonprofit organization devoted exclusively to the early detection of cancer. All administrative and overhead costs are underwritten by the Listwin Family Foundation, allowing 100 percent of contributions to go entirely to early detection research activities.

Don Listwin founded Canary Foundation to address a notable lack of balance in cancer research. While almost $10 billion is spent annually on cancer research in the United States, the vast majority is allocated to developing new cancer treatments and caring for patients. Surprisingly, little funding is available to researchers investigating new ways to prevent cancer, or to detect it at its earliest, curable stages. Canary Foundation intends to affect this balance by increasing funding and by facilitating coordination among researchers and research institutions. Canary Foundation provides funding to researchers who are engaged in developing cancer early detection technologies and protocols. Specifically, Canary Foundation is supporting researchers working towards a standardized family of biomarker signatures for the effective and accurate early detection of all forms of cancer. For more information about the Canary Foundation and its programs, please visit www.canaryfoundation.org.

This is an open-access article

 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.