Brochures

About us

The mission of the California Breast Cancer Research Program is to prevent and eliminate breast cancer by leading innovation in research, communication, and collaboration in the California scientific and lay communities.

Nearly 200,000 California women are living with breast cancer. Breast cancer can affect women of all ages and races, and approximately 80 percent of women who develop breast cancer have no family history of the disease. In California alone, more than 4,200 women die of breast cancer every year — that's more than 11 women every day who die from the disease.

In 1993, California breast cancer activists joined forces with scientists, clinicians, state legislators, and University of California officials to catapult the state into national leadership for breast cancer research. The activists, most of them women who had survived or currently had breast cancer, were impatient with the slow pace of progress against the disease. With their allies, they wrote and won passage of statewide legislation to push breast cancer research in new, creative directions. The California Breast Cancer Act increased the tobacco tax by 2¢ per pack, with 45 percent of the revenue going to CBCRP.

That law led to the establishment of the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP), which administers funding for research in California that can help piece together the puzzle of this varied and highly complex disease. As a clearer picture emerges, it can teach us how to prevent, treat and cure breast cancer.

To read the legislation that created CBCRP, see the Health and Safety Code Section 104145 and Revenue and Taxation Codes Section 30461-30462.1 and Section 18791-18796 (amended SB 1172 July 15, 2024).

CBCRP is the largest state-funded breast cancer research effort in the nation and is administered by the Research Grants Program Office within the University of California Office of the President. CBCRP is funded through the tobacco tax, voluntary tax contributions on personal California income tax forms and individual donations.

We fund California investigators to solve questions in basic breast cancer biology, causes and prevention of breast cancer, innovative treatments, and ways to live well following a breast cancer diagnosis.
We involve advocates and scientists in every aspect of CBCRP decision-making, including program planning and grant application review.
Since 1994, we've awarded over $300 million in research funds to institutions across California.
Ninety-five percent of our revenue goes directly to funding research and education efforts.