Cancer Research Institute

Cancer Research Institute (CRI), is a nonprofit organization established in 1953 that is dedicated to advancing scientific research on the immune system with the goal of developing immunotherapies to treat and potentially cure all cancers.

To save more lives and reduce cancer deaths, CRI provides funding to an international community of scientific experts conducting innovative research in immunology and cancer immunotherapy—the most promising approach to cancer treatment to emerge since the advent of chemotherapy in the 1940s. Through this work, which spans the entire spectrum of discovery and drug development, CRI aims to harness the immune system’s innate power to fight all forms of cancer, making possible new, safer, and more effective treatment options.

CRI is at the epicenter of today’s revolutionary breakthroughs in cancer treatment. It was the first nonprofit to establish and nurture the field of cancer immunology, and over the past six decades has attracted to the field thousands of the brightest scientific minds and enabled them to pursue high-risk research that otherwise would have gone unfunded. Its prestigious Scientific Advisory Council, composed of the field’s most notable luminaries, guides all funding decisions, ensuring the highest standards of scientific excellence and greatest potential for impact on cancer treatment.

CRI continues to be an engine of innovation as its scientists forge new discoveries in laboratories and clinics around the world. Through its creation of transformative funding models and strategic application of its resources and unique capabilities, CRI is able to accelerate discovery and speed the development of lifesaving immunotherapies for more cancer patients.

CRI is not a treatment facility and does not provide medical advice. However, as the leader in cancer immunotherapy research, we draw upon our global network of immunotherapy experts to provide trusted information to the public, with a focus on connecting patients and caregivers to cancer immunotherapy clinical trials as well as to other patients that have been treated with immunotherapy.

What makes the Cancer Research Institute unique?

• Focus on cancer immunotherapy: The Cancer Research Institute is the only cancer charity dedicated to cancer immunotherapy research that relies on public donor support to power its lifesaving mission.
• Impact on all cancers: Immunotherapy is a treatment approach that has benefited patients with many different types of cancers, and it has the potential to one day treat all cancers successfully.
• Commitment to fiscal integrity and transparency: CRI cherishes the trust its donors place in it, and holds to the highest standards of accountability. CRI devotes more than 85% of every dollar raised to programs, and consistently receives top ratings from charity watchdog organizations.
• Unparalleled access to the field’s leading experts: While more and more cancer charities are beginning to recognize immunotherapy’s potential to benefit the patient populations they serve, none has as extensive or deep a relationship with the field’s top experts as CRI does. Built upon decades of interaction and collaboration, these relationships are characterized by deep trust and a willingness on the part of CRI’s global expert network to share their knowledge and participate actively in the design and execution of our research programs.