LOOKING AHEAD
THE NEXT ERA OF CANCER RESEARCH IS ALREADY TAKING SHAPE
The progress made this year shows what becomes possible when bold research, national collaboration, philanthropy, and collective action move together.
Across Canada, Terry Fox-funded researchers are building on strong momentum. They are expanding precision oncology, harnessing data and artificial intelligence, advancing cancer prevention, and creating new pathways to bring promising discoveries closer to patients.
The work ahead is ambitious, and the opportunity to accelerate is now.
With continued leadership, partnership, and support, we can strengthen the systems, programs, and people shaping the future of cancer research.
LEADERSHIP MESSAGES
MICHAEL MAZZA
President and CEO, Terry Fox Foundation
Forty-five years after Terry’s Marathon of Hope, Terry’s belief in the power of research continues to guide our work.
This year’s progress was made possible by people across Canada who chose to act. Donors, volunteers, schools, teams, partners, families, and communities came together to support ambitious science and help create new possibilities for people facing cancer.
Through the Terry Fox Research Institute, this generosity supports a national research ecosystem built for collaboration, innovation, and impact. Researchers are asking bold questions, advancing precision medicine, harnessing data and artificial intelligence, and building new pathways from discovery to patient benefit.
There is good reason for optimism in the research community. New technologies are helping researchers understand cancer in greater detail, while secure, shareable data is making it possible to connect knowledge across institutions, learn from more patients, and accelerate discovery. These advances are creating opportunities that did not exist even a decade ago.
The progress is meaningful, but it also reinforces the urgency of what comes next. We must ensure researchers have the sustained funding, infrastructure, expertise, and partnerships needed to act on these opportunities and move promising discoveries forward.
As we look ahead, our responsibility is clear: to honour Terry by investing in the science, partnerships, and collective action needed to change the future of cancer.
DR. JIM WOODGETT
President and Scientific Director, Terry Fox Research Institute
Terry Fox understood something fundamental: investing in research is the only way to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
That insight has guided the work of the Terry Fox Research Institute and its partners for nearly two decades. Together, we have invested in bold ideas and extraordinary researchers and built national collaborations that are advancing discoveries across the cancer continuum—from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, treatment and survivorship.
Today, that work is driving a new era of cancer research in Canada, bringing together scientists, clinicians, patients and data experts to accelerate discoveries that will truly transform cancer research and care for years to come.
At the centre of this system change is the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network, which has established a new model for precision oncology research and care in Canada. By connecting leading cancer centres, researchers, patients and health data through one coordinated national initiative, the Network has laid the foundation to bring equitable, personalized care to more Canadians with cancer. Building on the tremendous success of the first phase of the Network, we are excited to enter a new phase that will expand access, increase the quality of data oncologists receive prior to diagnosis and generate the evidence needed to move individualized medicine with better care outcomes closer to patients across the entire country.
Supporting this work is another exciting project led by the TFRI. The Digital Health & Discovery Platform is a software solution being built by experts within our organization to help researchers securely connect and use complex health data to accelerate discovery and translate data into better patient outcomes. We are excited to share that over the next year, we will be deploying and testing this solution in centres across the country, allowing researchers to securely access and analyze the data they need bring discoveries closer to patients while maintaining privacy and confidentiality.
At the same time, we continue to expand our investment in the discovery research programs which have been the bread and butter of the TFRI for decades, including our best-in-class Program Project Grants and New Investigator Awards. These are the engines that ensure new innovations are made possible. We’re also adding new programs in this portfolio, aimed at understanding how to suppress cancer before it begins and accelerating early-stage clinical trials to bring promising new treatments to patients sooner, respectively.
The opportunity ahead is extraordinary.
Cancer remains one of the most challenging diseases for society but, in over 40 years as a cancer researcher, I have never seen so much optimism, courage, and progress. Cancer vulnerabilities once considered undruggable are now entering clinical use. Tests that detect cancer emergence or recurrence have become remarkably effective. And we are now using powerful technologies to reveal patient-specific vulnerabilities and developing new strategies to target them. All of this is leading to more cures, better results for patients, and increased hope.
Terry’s vision was to fund research that helped end the suffering caused by cancer. Together, we are getting closer to making his dream a reality.
THE OPPORTUNITY NOW
The next era of cancer research is already taking shape.
Across Canada, researchers are building the systems, tools, and collaborations needed to make breakthroughs faster and bring discoveries closer to patients. The opportunity now is to accelerate this progress, and that will require focused, sustained support.
In the year ahead, the Terry Fox Foundation and the Terry Fox Research Institute will continue working together to grow support for the research priorities with the greatest potential to improve outcomes: precision oncology, data and artificial intelligence, cancer prevention, and clinical trial acceleration.
Progress will depend on continued investment in exceptional researchers, national infrastructure, collaborative programs, and new models for moving discoveries toward patients. It will also depend on more people seeing themselves as part of the research story.
A Community Run. A School Run. A Team fundraiser. A monthly donation. A transformational gift. A corporate partnership. A gift in a will.
Every pathway matters. Together, these acts of generosity and participation provide the continuity, reach, flexibility, and scale ambitious cancer research requires.
This is the work ahead: expanding community fundraising, deepening philanthropy, strengthening partnerships, engaging more schools and teams, and connecting more Canadians to the research their support makes possible.
The opportunity is ambitious, urgent, and full of possibility.
WHAT COMES NEXT
Terry’s mission has always looked forward.
The 45th anniversary gave Canadians an opportunity to reflect on how far the Marathon of Hope has travelled. More importantly, it reminded us how much remains possible.
The next chapter will be shaped by researchers asking bold questions, patients contributing lived experience and data, partners building new pathways, and supporters choosing to invest before the answer is known.
Together, we can help accelerate the discoveries, collaborations, and innovations that will change the future of cancer and help finish it.
READY TO ACCELERATE PROGRESS?
Explore how you can help power bold cancer research, from giving and fundraising to joining a Run, starting a team, or sharing Terry’s mission.
CANCER RESEARCH
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