Breast Cancer Research Foundation

BCRF seeks to make breast cancer no longer life-threatening and to eventually eradicate breast cancer altogether through funding innovative clinical and translational research. BCRF supports the broadest portfolio of cancer research possible, supporting the entire spectrum from every angle, from prevention through treatments to survivorship. BCRF aims to develop, through research, more effective treatments that have fewer side effects than chemotherapy or other currently available treatments. BCRF aims to advance our knowledge about the risk factors and causes of breast cancer and develop evidence-based interventions to prevent and reduce the risk of breast cancer.

BCRF supports research in breast cancer all over the world through an innovative grant-making model. With the support of a world-renowned scientific advisory board, BCRF selects the best and brightest researchers in breast cancer and invites them to apply for funding. Because BCRF supports people and not projects, those that make it through the rigorous, peer-reviewed, selection process are empowered to pursue their most creative, innovative, and game-changing ideas.\n\nBCRF also knows that progress in research doesn't happen in silos. We foster collaborations by bringing together BCRF investigators for meetings and symposiums. The non-competitive grant applications also encourage the sharing of ideas, not keeping them private for their own grants.

At BCRF, the staff is driven and motivated, and many of whom have a personal connection to breast cancer. Every single employee is empowered, inspired, and united by the mission of doing everything we can to cure breast cancer and do so in record time. We work hard to raise the funds necessary to promote the most promising research. We attend conferences and speak with experts so we are always up to date on the latest research being conducted. With over 100 corporate partners, we are all working together to end breast cancer.\n\nBCRF is supported by a world-renowned scientific advisory board, chaired by Drs. Judy Garber from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Larry Norton, director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who serves as the scientific director. Along with the other members of the SAB, they decide the research focus of BCRF and how we can chart the best path to a cure.

Over the past 25 years, there has been a 39% reduction in breast cancer mortality rates, and BCRF-supported investigators have been involved in breast cancer breakthroughs. Thanks to BCRF-funded research, we now know that breast cancer is not just one disease, but is made of many different subtypes, each responding differently to different treatments. We also know much more about genetic risk factors, like BRCA1 and BRCA2, but also other genes that can influence an individual's risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. There are new diagnostic tests developed by BCRF investigators and new treatments being discovered. \n\nWhat's next is to end breast cancer. BCRF is currently in the process of developing even more innovative funding models to accelerate bringing the most brilliant, game-changing ideas out of the labs and into the hands of patients and families suffering from this devastating disease.