Breast cancer diagnoses are rising among younger women, but research devoted specifically to women under 45 has remained limited. Now, the Estée Lauder Companies and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) are making a major new investment in understanding why.Estée Lauder is officially announcing a five-year commitment to BCRF, backed by a $15 million grant from the Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation. The funding will establish the Global Research Initiative on Breast Cancer in Younger Women, which the organizations say will be the largest coordinated global research effort dedicated to breast cancer in younger women.The initiative comes as researchers confront a concerning trend. Breast cancer diagnoses among women under 45 rose 11 percent between 2012 and 2022, according to figures shared by BCRF and the Estée Lauder Companies. Yet an estimated 0.6 percent of breast cancer research funding since 2020 has been directed specifically toward younger women. Breast cancer in this population is also more likely to be found at a later stage; women diagnosed before 40 are nearly 40 percent more likely to die from the disease.“Too many young women are hearing the words ‘you have breast cancer’ at a time in their lives when they never imagined they would, yet research focused specifically on younger women has historically received only a fraction of breast cancer funding,” Donna McKay, president and CEO of BCRF, tells ELLE exclusively.Bryan Bedder//Getty Images“This extraordinary initiative, made possible by the Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation, allows the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s leading scientists to understand what is driving the rise in early-onset breast cancer and turn those discoveries into better ways to predict risk, prevent breast cancer, detect it earlier and treat it more effectively. Young women deserve answers, and they deserve them with urgency.”The project extends a partnership between the Estée Lauder Companies and BCRF that dates back more than three decades. Evelyn H. Lauder founded BCRF in 1993, one year after launching the Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign and co-creating the pink ribbon. Since then, the Estée Lauder Companies and its Charitable Foundation have provided more than $123 million to BCRF and supported more than 400 research grants.“The Estée Lauder Companies has a longstanding commitment to advancing breast cancer research, and I know my mother, Evelyn H. Lauder, would be so proud to see us carry her vision forward.” William P. Lauder, chair of the Estée Lauder Companies’ board of directors and co-chair of BCRF, said in a statement. “She believed deeply in the power of research to change and ultimately save lives. Through this donation, we can expand our understanding of breast cancer in younger women, an area where there is still much to learn. I am grateful to the brilliant scientific researchers whose curiosity, dedication, and discoveries continue to bring us closer to our shared goal of a world free from breast cancer.”