An estimated 9,700 people were diagnosed with melanoma In Canada in 2023. These cancers can affect people of all ages, but often have a pretty good prognosis, with five-year survival rate of 89 per cent.
Survival often depends on when a melanoma is diagnosed, where it is located and whether it has spread, or metastasized, to other parts of the body. When cancers metastasize, they become extremely difficult to treat, and often lead to death.
Today, the lack of treatment options for patients with metastatic melanoma make melanoma a pressing health issue in Canada.
Our Research Strategy
Given these challenges, the Terry Fox Research Institute has embarked on a multi-pronged strategy to fund the best melanoma scientific teams and programs in the country.
In 2022/2023, roughly 1 per cent of the money invested by the TFRI supported melanoma research. This added up to a total investment of nearly $117,000.*
To allocate its resources, the Institute has international experts evaluate the excellence and the potential for impact of all its research projects. This approach distinguishes our research investment strategy from all others in Canada and allows donors to be confident that their investment is supporting the top 5% of Canadian researchers and their science.
*Our scientific discovery projects are interdisciplinary by design and often focus on more than one cancer type. The figures listed above are an estimate and should not be taken as exact figures.