Canary Foundation was founded in 2004 by Don Listwin, a successful high-technology executive who lost his mother to misdiagnosed ovarian cancer. Don discovered 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. Surprisingly, little funding is available to researchers investigating new ways to detect cancer it at its earliest, curable stages.

Don made a commitment to use his time, energy, expertise, enthusiasm, professional network, and his own family foundation's resources to build a non-profit organization that will succeed at the creation of an early warning system for cancer. His ongoing passion is to build the foundation that connects the very best cancer researchers with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists so that their breakthroughs will have the best chances of saving lives.

Don recruited Dr.Lee Hartwell, 2001 Nobel Laureate, to help form the Canary Science Team from the most outstanding, scientifically innovative researchers available from various disciplines. Science team members come from widely different fields and institutions to meet on a regular basis where they share ideas and breakthroughs. Canary has devised a simple process to provide money and tools for team members to accomplish their stated goals at a rapid pace and with directly applicable results. Tools include software to share data, dedicated websites, project management support, quarterly collaboration meetings and project reviews.

One of the first decisions the Science Team made was to choose ovarian cancer as a prototype for creating an early detection blood test to detect trace amounts of proteins called biomarkers produced by cancer. Ovarian cancer was chosen as it is generally considered asymptomatic until late stage and has relatively low occurrence. Knowledge, techniques, and data gathered from the Ovarian Cancer Program are being leveraged to expand into other types of cancers (Pancreatic, Prostate and Lung).

In addition to blood tests, the Science Team is working on advancing imaging techniques and agents for general body scanning technology using PET, Ultrasound and other imaging modalities for pinpointing the exact cancer location in order to eradicate it while it is still small and before it has spread.

Canary hopes that by delivering on the first effective test for early detection of cancer it will spur a dramatic increase of funds into the early detection field from the National Cancer Institute and the venture capital community so that products based on this research will arrive faster and save millions of lives per year.

Canary Foundation seeks donors who are willing to invest in this valuable effort: to invest because of their interest in tackling cancer at its root; to invest because cancer has directly touched their lives; or to invest because they want to be part of what may prove to be the most significant medical cause of our generation.

We invite you to join Canary Foundation - because stopping cancer early is the best possible investment you can make. 100% of your donation will go directly to research programs as all administration and overhead costs are underwritten by operating grants.