There is an estimated 1,217 people diagnosed with oligo each year with 11,757 people living with this tumor in the US today. Oligo is currently incurable, and in the absence of new treatments, life expectancy is 3-12 years, depending on the tumor grade. This is a brutal fact, and one that all of us hate to acknowledge, but it makes the need for curative research crystal clear.

Two primary sources of research funding are the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Brain Tumor Society (the largest foundation for brain cancer) from which 12% (~$12 million) and 22% (~$2 million) of total annual funds respectively are allocated to support brain cancer. Most of these funds support research for glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive brain tumor. Until Oligo Nation was founded, there was essentially no money going to oligo research and no new treatments had been tried on oligo patients for 20 years.

In spite of this, the potential for medical breakthroughs in oncology has never been greater due to new opportunities in fields like genetics and immunotherapy. Since 2016, Oligo Nation has raised $1.3 million and funded 18 research grants at leading institutions (Stanford, UCSF, Duke, MD Anderson, etc). More than 90% of their donated funds directly support research, compared to 5-25% of the bigger nonprofit foundations (NBTS, ABTA, ABC2, etc.). Grants are 100% focused on opportunities that can translate to clinical trials for oligo patients in the short-term.