Canary Fund

Canary Ovarian Cancer Program: The goal of our ovarian research program is to develop a strategy to accurately identify ovarian cancers that would otherwise be lethal at a stage when they are readily curable. The program focuses on high grade serous ovarian cancer, which is the most common and lethal subtype, in order to have the highest impact on reducing ovarian cancer mortality. Our aims include understanding the earliest stages of cancer development in the fallopian tube, identifying molecular markers for early detection or prevention, and developing advanced imaging techniques for early detection of the disease. Development of blood and imaging tests follows a similar roadmap; both include biomarker discovery followed by validation, but they also involve different techniques and challenges.

Canary Lung Cancer Program:Canary is focused on developing diagnostics with high sensitivity and specificity to detect otherwise lethal lung cancers at a stage when they are readily curable. To this end, Canary has assembled a team of experts who are collaborating to discover and validate biomarkers for blood and imaging tests that together will identify individuals harboring lethal lung cancers so that they can be removed. The Canary Lung Cancer Program has supported the development and maintenance of critical biospecimen resources, blood biomarker discovery and validation, molecular imaging projects for early detection of lethal lung cancer, and epidemiology and modeling for effective lung cancer screening.(continued Sch O)

Canary Prostate Cancer Program:The specific goals of the Canary Foundation Prostate program are to develop tests that can: 1) Identify lethal prostate cancers at an early (curable) stage; 2) Classify prostate cancers as either 1) potentially lethal; best treated with aggressive therapy b) non-lethal: suitable for continued monitoring without aggressive treatment. Given the large body of published but invalidated candidate markers for prostate cancer, we are focusing our initial efforts on evaluating the performance of a selected set of promising biomarkers. Candidate biomarkers are evaluated based on their ability to detect lethal prostate cancers at an early (curable) stage and to discriminate lethal from non-lethal prostate cancer. We are considering both fluid-based and tissue-based biomarkers for prognostic applications. The Canary Prostate Active Surveillance Study (PASS) enrolls men who opt for active surveillance of their early stage prostate cancer. Men are followed closely for signs of cancer progression, donating biospecimens and clinical data for a minimum of 5 years or until receiving treatment for their disease. The biospecimens and clinical data provide a valuable resource to test promising biomarkers and predictive tools for their use in the active surveillance setting.Canary Pancreatic Cancer Program:Canary is focused on developing diagnostics with high sensitivity and specificity to detect otherwise lethal pancreatic cancers at an early stage when they can be cured through surgical resection. We anticipate that no single biomarker will be sufficient to create a test with the required sensitivity and specificity to detect pancreatic cancer early. Instead, a definitive diagnosis will rely upon combinations of biomarkers and upon blood and imaging tests used together. To this end, the Canary pancreatic cancer researchers have collaborated to discover and validate biomarkers that will provide the basis for blood and imaging tests for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. Canary Collaborations Program:Canary Foundation believes that a collaborative, coordinated approach is necessary to achieve our goals. Our multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional Early Detection Program provides a great example of this philosophy in action. Our foundation partnerships link mutual scientific expertise and entrepreneurial spirit in the hopes of advancing research in the diagnostic arena of early cancer detection. We partner with research institutions, foundations, industry and government organizations. Collaborating programs include the Canary Center at Stanford and the CRUK Cambridge Centre Early Detection Programme at the University of Cambridge in England. We provide scientific program management to make sure that all funded research activities among the scientists and clinicians at the various partner institutions are on track and that any obstacles are rapidly addressed and overcome.