Key Facts

• Fanconi anemia, or FA, is a rare, inherited DNA repair disorder that significantly increases the risk of cancer, often at young ages.

• Individuals with FA face a dramatically higher lifetime risk of head and neck, gynecologic and other solid tumors, and many cannot safely receive standard DNA-damaging cancer therapies.

• The Fanconi Cancer Foundation was founded in 1989 by parents Lynn and David Frohnmayer to accelerate research and improve care for families affected by FA. All three Frohnmayer daughters have passed from complications of FA.

• FCF has invested more than $35 million in research worldwide.

• FCF prioritizes multi-institutional, collaborative research efforts focused on cancer prevention, early detection and safer treatment strategies.

• Current initiatives include research exploring chemoprevention and improved cancer detection approaches, gene editing, advocacy, and infrastructure and systems to accelerate treatments.

• FCF partners with leading institutions and national organizations, including the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Cancer Society, to raise visibility for FA and support emerging investigators.

• Through advocacy, FCF ensures lived experience helps shape research priorities, clinical trial design and standards of care.

• FCF provides trusted clinical guidelines, educational resources and global community support to individuals with FA, caregivers and clinicians.

• FCF’s work bridges rare disease and cancer research, advancing discoveries that inform both FA care and broader understanding of DNA repair and cancer biology.