Project availability and funding progress are updated regularly. Gifts to featured projects help advance NFCR’s broader research mission.
Researching for a cure — since 1973
The next cure is in a lab today. We’re helping fund it.
For more than 50 years, NFCR has funded bold, boundary-pushing cancer research that challenges what we know, explores what others overlook, and moves promising discoveries closer to patients.
From early detection and prevention to new treatments, we support the science that can change what cancer means for generations to come.
- 53 yearsOf advancing cancer research
- $420M+Towards research & program support
- 5.7M+Individual donors
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Information · Research · Action
Start with what matters to you
Cancer Information
Research-backed information to help you understand cancer, make sense of your options and navigate what comes next — whether you’re newly diagnosed, supporting someone you love or simply looking for answers.
Explore cancer information
Follow the Research
See the cancer research NFCR funds, the scientists behind it and the discoveries we’re helping move from early ideas toward real-world impact.
Explore our research
Help Make Cures Possible
Every breakthrough begins with research. Give once, give monthly or find another way to support scientists pursuing better ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer.
Find a way to help- 53years advancing cancer research
- $420M+in research & program support
- 5.7M+individual donors
- 100%of NFCR research is donor funded
What we fund
Research happening now
See the questions NFCR-funded scientists are pursuing today — and support research with the potential to change what comes next.
Brain cancerOvercoming treatment resistance in glioblastoma
Testing combination approaches designed to target how GBM tumors evade current therapies.
Fund this projectPancreatic cancerDetecting pancreatic cancer earlier
Testing a blood-based marker panel that could help identify pancreatic cancer at an earlier, more treatable stage.
Fund this project General research fund · always openWhere research needs support most
Not sure which project to choose? The General Research Fund supports promising cancer research where funding can make the greatest difference, guided by NFCR’s scientific priorities.
$3.1M raised this year62% of annual goalGive to the General Research FundVoices
The people on both sides of the research
From the scientists pursuing difficult questions to the donors and caregivers who keep that work moving, NFCR’s progress is built by people who believe better answers are possible.
“If we are going to succeed at this [Project Moonshot] goal to rid the world of cancer, it will be an organization like NFCR leading the charge.”
“Donors are the linchpin.”
“When I reached out about supporting glioblastoma caregivers, NFCR listened. Dr. Webster Cavenee and Dr. Raju Kucherlapati took the time to meet my family — their commitment to finding GBM’s cause and cure was impressive to a layman like me. I’ve been a donor, and I always will be.”
50+ years of early bets
Today’s breakthroughs began as yesterday’s unproven ideas
For more than five decades, NFCR has backed promising ideas before their impact was obvious. Explore the discoveries, researchers and turning points that helped move cancer science forward.
2020s · Dr. Suzanne Topalian
Unleashing the immune system to fight cancer
Her early trials of nivolumab (Opdivo) showed that releasing the PD-1/PD-L1 “brakes” lets the immune system destroy cancer — now a treatment for more than 20 cancer types.
Read the story2010s · Dr. Alice Shaw
Matching treatment to the tumor’s genetic driver
Her pivotal trials of ALK-targeted drugs turned a once almost uniformly fatal lung cancer into one with median survival beyond five years.
Read the story2000s · Dr. Susan Horwitz
Solving how Taxol works
She discovered how Taxol stops cancer cells from dividing — enabling Abraxane (FDA-approved 2005) and one of the world’s most-prescribed chemotherapies.
Read the story1990s · Dr. Harold Dvorak
Cutting off a tumor’s blood supply
His discovery of VEGF led directly to Avastin (FDA-approved 2004) and anti-angiogenic therapies now standard for colorectal, lung, kidney, ovarian and brain cancers.
Read the story- Explore the full 50-year research timeline
Cancer information
If you’re facing cancer, start here.
Clear, research-backed information to help you understand cancer, explore your options and navigate the next step — whether you’re newly diagnosed, in treatment or supporting someone you love.
Latest
What’s new in the fight against cancer
The latest discoveries, research updates and developments.
Research news · Jul 2026Early results from an NFCR-funded pancreatic cancer trial
What the latest findings could mean for patients, in plain languageWhy nowThe funding-cuts crisis, explained
Federal grant cuts are stranding early-stage cancer research mid-study. Here’s what that means and where private funding fills the gap.
Read the explainerWe make cures possible
Fund the next breakthrough
Promising discoveries need time, resources and people willing to believe in their potential. Your gift gives cancer researchers the sustained support to pursue bold ideas, test new approaches and move discoveries closer to patients.
Where your dollar goes
- 73% Research & education
- 19% Fundraising
- 8% Operations
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