BCRF expands its reach to propel discoveries toward patients with over 280 researchers across 18 countries
New York, NY – Sept 24, 2026 — The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) announced today a record more than $75 million investment in breast cancer research for 2026-2027, supporting over 280 researchers across 18 countries. The annual grant portfolio spans the full continuum of the disease, from breast cancer prevention and risk prediction to diagnosis, treatment, metastasis, and survivorship, Meanwhile, new strategic initiatives are designed to address emerging needs and move promising science toward patients faster.
“At a time of extraordinary opportunity in breast cancer science and continued pressure on the research ecosystem, sustained private investment is essential,” said BCRF President and CEO Donna McKay. “BCRF’s role is not simply to fund excellent science, but to connect the people, data, and resources that allow discoveries to build on one another and move forward. This year’s $75 million grant investment—alongside major new commitments in breast cancer in younger women and translational innovation—reflects the urgency patients feel every day and our determination to accelerate progress.”
This Year’s Research Priorities: Tackling Breast Cancer’s Most Pressing Questions
Each year, BCRF identifies the most urgent opportunities to accelerate progress. While the Foundation supports a diverse array of research projects, key priorities for 2026-2027 include:
- Understanding and reversing the rise of breast cancer in younger women through a new multi-year research initiative
- Advancing precision prevention, including AI-driven risk assessment, earlier detection, and personalized prevention strategies
- Developing better treatments and new strategies to prevent, detect, and treat metastatic breast cancer
- Supporting translational science and new pathways to move the most promising discoveries from the laboratory toward clinical development
“Breast cancer is not one disease—it is many, each with its own biology, behavior, and burden,” said BCRF Chief Scientific Officer Dorraya El-Ashry, PhD. “This portfolio directly addresses the biggest unknowns. Our researchers are breaking new ground to uncover why and how breast cancer arises, how it spreads, and how we can treat or prevent it for every patient, in every community.”
Learn more about BCRF’s research projects and keep up with the latest developments in breast cancer research on bcrf.org.
Changing the Trajectory for Younger Women
BCRF is announcing an unprecedented investment in research on breast cancer in younger women. Since 2020, only 0.6% of breast cancer research funding and 0.4% clinical trials have focused specifically on younger women, even though they account for about 10% of patients with breast cancer. While research in this area has been severely underfunded, BCRF has been leading the way for years. Thanks to BCRF-funded research, we are already making headway in understanding postpartum breast cancer and helping young women navigate pregnancy after diagnosis. Yet the problem has outpaced research. Incidence is rising at twice the rate in younger women as compared to older women.
The Global Research Initiative on Breast Cancer in Younger Women is launching with a $15 million, multi-year investment by The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) Charitable Foundation—the largest investment in the field to date—catapulting BCRF into becoming the largest global funder of breast cancer research in women under 45, surpassing even the federal government. This initial investment will bring together experts to decode the biology of early-onset disease and translate discoveries into prevention, screening, and treatment.
Creating a New Pathway From Lab to Patients
Alongside its traditional grantmaking, BCRF is launching a venture philanthropy program, BCRF Ventures, to help close a critical funding gap between promising academic discoveries and clinical development. Too often, academic capital runs out while a program is still too early for conventional commercial investment, leaving potentially transformative science stalled before it can reach patients.
BCRF Ventures will apply investment acumen to mission-driven breast cancer science by backing early-stage companies advancing BCRF’s scientific mission. Rather than relying only on grants, BCRF can use mission-aligned investment structures to help propel promising programs, with any financial returns recycled into future breast cancer investments. The goal is to create a durable engine for innovation—one that helps discoveries move toward clinical testing and patient impact.
With a global network of researchers generating translational discoveries across breast cancer subtypes and scientific disciplines, BCRF is uniquely positioned to identify high-potential science and connect it with the expertise and capital needed for the next stage of development.
Fueling Metastatic Research Worldwide
Metastatic breast cancer (MBC), or stage 4, remains a central focus of BCRF’s research portfolio. This year the Foundation is investing $23.8 million in MBC research, fueling 102 projects, to unravel the most dangerous form of the disease. BCRF is proud to be the largest private funder of stage 4 research in the world. Investigators are working to understand how breast cancer cells spread and survive in distant organs, identify biomarkers that can predict or detect metastasis, and develop therapies that prevent progression or stop metastatic disease from becoming life-threatening.
Through the Evelyn H. Lauder Founder’s Fund and other collaborative programs, BCRF continues to support large-scale efforts that bring researchers, institutions, samples, and data together to accelerate insights into the biology of metastasis and translate them into better treatments.
Together We Achieve
Since 1993, BCRF has funded more than $1 billion in breast cancer research. That sustained investment has helped create a global community in which discoveries can build on one another—from fundamental biology to new approaches in prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.
Research often advances step by step, but progress accelerates when scientists have the freedom to pursue bold ideas, collaborate across institutions and disciplines, and carry promising discoveries forward. BCRF’s 2026-2027 investment reflects that model: sustained grantmaking paired with new approaches designed to address urgent gaps and speed the path from discovery to impact.
“Our work is both deeply personal and profoundly collective,” said McKay. “Each of us carries the stories of loved ones, family, friends, and colleagues affected by this disease. That urgency unites us. And it’s why we bring together scientists, clinicians, advocates, and supporters—because only together can we drive the breakthroughs that will finally end breast cancer.”
With more than three decades of progress, BCRF remains focused on what comes next: building on the advances already made and creating the conditions for the breakthroughs still to come.
