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From Research to Results
Our ProgressOur Impact
We invest in research that's changing how we think about cancer. For every dollar spent, 91 cents is committed to tackling this disease. That means more answers, faster breakthroughs and treatment personalized for every patient. With more than half a billion dollars raised to date, that's progress.
We Fund the Best Researchers in the World
At BCRF, we fund the game changers. Today, we support more than 275 women and men through our grants to make a real difference and accelerate progress. Get to know them and learn about their projects.
Our Areas of Focus
Breast cancer is a complex disease with no simple solution, which is why our researchers are tackling it from every angle. Learn about our areas of focus and why each is critical to knowing how to fight cancer from the start, slow its progress and one day stop it from occurring altogether.
Heredity & Ethnicity
Most people who develop breast cancer have no family history of the disease, but we know that’s not always the case. A person’s family history, inheritance, race and ethnicity are all important risk factors that have long been part of our research agenda. Our scientists have been behind major breakthroughs in this area, including the role BRCA1 and BRCA2 play in breast cancer and the genetic link to more aggressive breast cancers in women of African descent.
Whether understanding the mutated genes passed down from one generation to the next or developing low-cost genetic testing for diverse populations of women around the world, the more progress our researchers make, the better doctors are able to predict who is at risk and what can be done to prevent cancer’s onset.
Dr. Ambrosone is a Professor of Oncology and Chair of the Department of Cancer Prevention and Control at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. She is also co-leader of the CCSG Population Sciences Program. She was formerly a member of NCI’s EPIC Study Section and the ACS’s...
Fergus Couch is Professor and Chair of the Division of Experimental Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, with joint appointments in the Departments of Health Sciences Research and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dr. Couch works on the genetics of...
Susan M. Domchek, MD is the Basser Professor in Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as Executive Director of the Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center and Director of the Mariann and Robert MacDonald...
Charis Eng, MD, PhD is the founding Chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, founding Director of the institute’s clinical component, the Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare, and Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Genetics...
Dr. Ford is a medical oncologist and geneticist at Stanford, devoted to studying the genetic basis of breast cancer development, treatment and prevention. He graduated from Yale where he received his MD in 1989. He trained clinically in Medicine and Oncology at...
Lifestyle & Prevention
A world free of breast cancer includes preventing the disease from occurring in the first place. While some factors are out of our control, like age or gender, we have uncovered a number of ways people may be able to reduce their risk.
Our researchers have demonstrated that maintaining a healthy weight, staying physically active and avoiding stress can profoundly influence prognosis and incidence. These important advances are helping to empower women and men to take command of their lives and minimize their chances of developing the disease.
Dr. Accordino has been at Columbia University Medical Center since 2012, when she began her Clinical Hematology/Oncology Fellowship. Since that time, she has worked on a number of research projects related to health outcomes, quality of cancer care, cancer care...
Dr. Colditz is an epidemiologist and public health expert with a longstanding interest in the causes and prevention of chronic disease, particularly among women. With a commitment to identifying strategies for prevention of breast cancer, Dr. Colditz studies benign...
Andrew J. Dannenberg, MD is the Henry R. Erle, MD-Roberts Family Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also Director of Cancer Prevention at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell. Dr. Dannenberg received his medical degree from Washington...
John Forbes is Professor of Surgical Oncology, University of Newcastle (Australia); Director, Department of Surgical Oncology, Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital; and Director of Research, Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group. His breast cancer research...
Jorge Gomez, MD, PhD is the Assistant Vice President for Translational Research in Special Populations, as well as the Associate Director of the Center for Elimination of Border Health Disparities at The University of Arizona Health Sciences, and he is also the...
Metastasis
If detected early, breast cancer can be controlled. It’s when the disease spreads, or metastasizes, that it often turns lethal. Metastatic cancer cells can lie dormant for years, even decades, only to “wake up” and find their way into different parts of the body, such as the lungs, liver, brain or bones. For those patients whose cancer metastasizes, there has been little hope for long-term survival. There’s nothing more important than stopping cancer in its tracks. We have committed $31 million to tackling metastasis through a multi-year, multi-institutional international collaboration. The first of its kind, the Evelyn H. Lauder Founder’s Fund will enable researchers to understand why some breast cancers spread faster than others and why some respond to certain therapies while other don’t. At the program’s center are major studies of the molecules that go awry in cancer cells to help us understand what makes the disease tick and how...
Carey K. Anders, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine and an active member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. As a clinician-scientist, she is Section Leader for the UNC Breast Program,...
Fabrice André MD, PhD, is an oncologist based at Gustave Roussy Cancer Cancer, Villejuif, France. He is Professor of Medicine at University Paris Sud. His BCRF research focuses on the characterisation of molecular alterations in metastatic breast cancers. He is leading...
Michael Andreeff received his MD and PhD from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and additional training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He has been a pioneer in flow cytometry since 1971, when he established the first flow cytometry laboratory at the...
Dr. Bargonetti began at Hunter College as an Assistant Professor in 1994 and is currently a Full Professor and the Chair of the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental PhD Subprogram in Biology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Professor Bargonetti has carried out extensive...
Robert Benezra, PhD, is a Member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer in the Department of Cell Biology and a Professor of Biology at Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. As a postdoctoral fellow he identified the Id proteins as dominant negative...
Survivorship
There are more breast cancer survivors today than ever before. We know the last round of treatment, however, doesn’t mark the end of one’s journey with the disease. Breast cancer changes a person’s life in many ways.
Women and men can face a multitude of physical, mental and emotional challenges, ranging from pain and fatigue to cognitive and sleeping issues, making quality of life after treatment all the more important to our researchers. Today, with nearly 3.5 million survivors in the U.S. alone, not only is the definition of breast cancer changing but also what it means to manage the disease.
Dr. Accordino has been at Columbia University Medical Center since 2012, when she began her Clinical Hematology/Oncology Fellowship. Since that time, she has worked on a number of research projects related to health outcomes, quality of cancer care, cancer care...
Debra Barton has been a funded investigator in oncology symptom management since 2002, having developed, implemented and completed 11 large multi-site intervention trials. She has developed phase II and III clinical trials in a variety of symptoms including fatigue,...
Dr. Bertagnolli is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard University Medical School, and an Associate Surgeon at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital . She is presently the Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Dana Farber/Brigham and Women’...
Carol Fabian received her MD, internal medicine and oncology training from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City, Kansas. Dr. Fabian joined the faculty at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1977 and currently holds the rank of...
Dame Lesley Fallowfield is Professor of Psycho-oncology at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex where she is Director of the Sussex Health Outcomes Research & Education in Cancer (SHORE-C) group. Dame Lesley originally trained as a nurse...
Treatment
Every cancer is as unique as each patient. Thanks to research, we now know that no two cancers are the same and have evolved from a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment to tailored therapies and more effective drugs. With more personalized treatment comes improved outcomes.
Our researchers know that a treatment’s benefits, as well as its risks, differ for each person. The type of breast cancer, the stage of the disease and the characteristics of the tumor, along with one’s lifestyle and medical history, are all taken into consideration. Our aim? To find the least invasive, most effective option that will minimize adverse effects while maximizing success for each patient. We like to call this “outsmarting cancer.”
Dr. Aaronson’s research is focused on discovery and functions of cancer genes. At the NCI as Chief, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, he identified the first normal function of a cancer gene as that of a growth factor, PDGF, and cloned erbB2 (also...
Mohamed received his B.S. degree in Biochemistry in 2000 and his MD, PhD degree in 2008 from the University of Michigan. His early research focused on developing facile assays to resolve complex fundamental cellular processes. He is trained in genetics,...
Dr. Accordino has been at Columbia University Medical Center since 2012, when she began her Clinical Hematology/Oncology Fellowship. Since that time, she has worked on a number of research projects related to health outcomes, quality of cancer care, cancer care...
Kathy S. Albain is Professor of Medicine (tenured) at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and is a Dean’s Senior Scholar. As a member of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, she devotes her clinical practice to patients with breast and lung cancer at...
Prasanna G. Alluri, MD, PhD is a Chief Resident in Radiation Oncology at the University of Michigan and a Research Fellow in Translational Oncology in the laboratories of Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD and Dan Hayes, MD. His research interests are focused on understanding...
Tumor Biology
Understanding the basic biology of breast cancer is allowing us to get to the very core of the disease. Every aspect, from a cancer cell’s genes to the tumor’s environment, is under investigation. Our researchers are exploring the molecules that make up a cancer cell, how and why it transitions from normal to abnormal and why tumors react differently to different treatments. Their efforts are giving us the knowledge to achieve both prevention and a cure.
Dr. Aaronson’s research is focused on discovery and functions of cancer genes. At the NCI as Chief, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, he identified the first normal function of a cancer gene as that of a growth factor, PDGF, and cloned erbB2 (also...
Mohamed received his B.S. degree in Biochemistry in 2000 and his MD, PhD degree in 2008 from the University of Michigan. His early research focused on developing facile assays to resolve complex fundamental cellular processes. He is trained in genetics,...
Dr. David B. Agus is a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering and heads the USC Westside Cancer Center and the USC Center for Applied Molecular Medicine. Dr. Agus...
Kathy S. Albain is Professor of Medicine (tenured) at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and is a Dean’s Senior Scholar. As a member of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, she devotes her clinical practice to patients with breast and lung cancer at...
Prasanna G. Alluri, MD, PhD is a Chief Resident in Radiation Oncology at the University of Michigan and a Research Fellow in Translational Oncology in the laboratories of Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD and Dan Hayes, MD. His research interests are focused on understanding...
We've Been Saving Lives for Over 20 Years
Our research has impacted millions of women and men worldwide. With your help, we have raised more than half a billion dollars to accelerate advances and transform how we tackle breast cancer today. Explore some of the progress you have made possible.
