Canary Foundation announces $8.5 million in gifts to advance vital cancer early detection studies

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Canary Foundation announces that it has received two contributions positioned to advance areas important to its mission to develop cancer early detection tests.  The first is a gift for $7.5 million from the William K. Bowes Jr. Foundation to support a faculty position focused on clinical trials at the Canary Center at Stanford.  The management of the clinical trial process is a growing need at the center with requirements ranging from the approval process for patient studies, storing and testing samples from current clinical trials, and growing the center's ability to support current and future clinical trials. The gift will also provide funds for the Founder's Fund that supports unmet needs and special projects.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111213/DC21536LOGO)

The second donation of $1 million from the Frank and Denise Quattrone Foundation supports the Prostate Active Surveillance Study (PASS). A clinical trial involving 1,000 men, PASS is looking for ways to distinguish lethal versus non-lethal prostate cancer.  This gift is timely as the Prostate Cancer Science Team moves deeper into the trial, providing funds to complete the enrollment of men, gather and test samples and develop important industry partners.

"These contributions create new momentum for our research," states Ronica Smucker, Executive Director of Canary Foundation. "Moving the studies out of the lab and to patients, with FDA approval, helps prove the efficacy of the blood and imaging tests we are developing that can save lives on a widespread basis. The support of these foundations brings Canary's mission to a whole new level."

The combined $8.5 million enhances Canary Foundation's goal of accelerating promising studies to clinical trial and optimizing the data from those studies towards the creation of cancer early detection diagnostic tools.

About Canary Foundation 
Canary Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the goal of identifying cancer early through a simple blood test and then pinpointing its location with molecular imaging when it is small and most curable.  Since 2004, Canary has raised more than $60 million to support early detection research.  Its collaborative research programs span multiple disciplines and institutions.  For more information, please visit www.canaryfoundation.org or see our blog at www.canaryfoundation.org/get-social/

Background
Cancer is the number 2 leading cause of death in the United States taking more than 1.5 million lives last year. 1 in 4 people will die of cancer.

Canary Foundation was founded in 2004 by Don Listwin, a successful high-technology executive who lost his mother to misdiagnosed ovarian cancer. Don was determined to understand the cause of such a grievous misdiagnosis. His research into scientific progress in cancer detection led to the fact that although 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.

This truth remains the same today: cancer is almost always diagnosed in late stages when survival rates are low (10%, generalized). Little funding is available to researchers investigating new ways to detect cancer at its earliest, most curable stages. When found early, there is a 90% survival rate.

Canary Foundation is the first non-profit organization dedicated solely to the funding, discovery, and development of tests for early cancer detection.

Canary Research Teams, carefully comprised of outstanding scientific researchers from across the globe, each contributing specialized expertise across disciplines. Members collaborate and innovate, leading cutting edge research initiatives to advance the development of early detection tests.

The Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, representing a partnership between Canary Foundation and Stanford University, opened doors in 2009. Canary Foundation's teams push scientific progress through blood and imaging biomarker discovery, with the ultimate goal of bridging the gap between research and industry that will turn this progress into diagnostics tests for the early detection of cancer. 

www.canaryfoundation.org
@CanaryFound
www.facebook.com/canaryfound
canarycenter.stanford.edu

SOURCE Canary Foundation