All funds raised by the Estee Lauder Companies in 2003 will go to global breast cancer research charity the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (http://www.bcrfcure.org/). Since the charity's founding ten years ago the BCRF has raised over $40 million for breast cancer. In 2003 the charity embarks on a global research programme supporting valuable research projects in several countries.

All funds raised in the UK for the BCRF will support UK breast cancer research. The beneficiary will be an important research study at the UK's Royal Marsden Institute of Cancer Research. The pioneering study will look at how the molecular effects of chemotherapy administered before breast cancer surgery can increase its effectiveness and be used as a guide for treatment of the cancer.

Chemotherapy has significantly improved the survival for women with early-stage breast cancer. Traditionally, chemotherapy was given after surgery to remove a breast tumor, but increasingly more women are receiving chemotherapy before surgery (called neoadjuvant or preoperative chemotherapy). This allows doctors to assess how well patients are responding to therapy by measuring tumor shrinkage. The study is taking this approach one step further. By studying molecular changes within a tumor both before and shortly after treatment, researchers believe it is possible to predict whether a specific therapy is appropriate for a patient. Professor Ian Smith's Breast Unit research team at the Royal Marsden Institute of Cancer Research is working to identify early molecular predictors of chemotherapy response and resistance in patients with breast cancer. They will accomplish this by comparing tumor biopsies and tissue samples taken before chemotherapy with those taken three weeks after treatment. In the first year of the project, the researchers have demonstrated that significantly more genes change in patients who subsequently respond to therapy, validating their approach for the discovery of genes that associate with response or resistance to chemotherapy. The overall goal is to quickly identify which novel therapies are likely to be more effective than standard treatments for early-stage breast cancer - an advance that would be increasingly important as more treatment options emerge.

For further information please contact:

Estee Lauder Companies - Corporate Communications
Tel: 0207 409 6804/6784
sgriffiths@estee-lauder.co.uk