New collaborative research to advance early detection of ovarian cancer

Victoria, BC – US non-profit organization Canary Foundation has donated $1 million to support research into the early detection of ovarian cancer

Canary Foundation’s Canadian-born founder and 25-year technology veteran Don Listwin announced the gift to the BC Cancer Foundation. The funds will be used by the BC Cancer Agency on Vancouver Island as part of a collaborative, multi-institute research project with the end goal of creating a simple blood test to screen women for ovarian cancer early enough to boost survival and cure rates.

“If ovarian cancer can be detected early, it is highly curable with current treatments,” says Dr. Brad Nelson, director of the BC Cancer Agency’s Trev and Joyce Deeley Research Centre in Victoria, which is conducting the Canadian portion of the project.

Other members of the world-class team assembled to work on the Canary project include: Nobel Laureate Dr Lee Hartwell, Drs Nicole Urban and Sam Hanash from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Drs Pat Brown and Sam Gambhir from Stanford University; Dr Peter Laird from the University of Southern California; Dr Frank McCormick from the University of California, San Francisco; and Dr Andrew Berlin of Intel.