“Turmoil at NIH and other federal health agencies threatens ongoing and future progress for patients,” the American Association for Cancer Research said in a Sept. 17 news release announcing its 2025 Cancer Progress Report.
The AACR found a 34% reduction in the overall cancer death rate between 1991 and 2023, translating to more than 4.5 million averted cancer deaths.
That progress, the agency said, can be directly tied to medical research conducted by the National Institutes of Health.
For every $326 the government spends on cancer research, it extends a human life by one year, according to a Sept. 14 report from The New York Times on the research landscape in the U.S. and what budget cuts could mean for the future of cancer care.
In fiscal year 2023, NCI-designated cancer centers were awarded more than $353 million in federal grants. Under the current administration’s plan to cap indirect cost reimbursement for research, that budget may be cut by more than a third.
The Trump administration has already canceled, suspended or delayed “hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cancer-related research grants and contracts,” according to the Times.
Read how two NCI-designated cancer center leaders are forging ahead in their organizations while facing this period of financial uncertainty here.
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