NIH funding cuts put current and future cancer patients at risk
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Activists hold signs during Sen. Angela Alsobrooks' "Sick of It" rally outside the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., on May 10. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
National Institutes of Health budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration and staff layoffs at the largest funder of cancer research threaten to stall innovation, doctors and researchers said.
The big picture: Cancer remains the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. As former President Biden said Monday after announcing he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the disease "touches us all."
- For many common cancers, rates continue to rise, especially for women. And recent studies have found diagnoses for several cancers have increased among people under the age of 50, including colorectal cancer.
Yes, but: Now, potentially life-saving research faces an uncertain future, researchers say.
Zoom out: For researchers already hit hard by DOGE-driven cuts and NIH grant cancellations, the president's 2026 budget proposal with nearly $18 billion in proposed cuts posed another blow.
- The American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network said in a May 2024 fact sheet that "[i]ncreased and sustained investment" at the NIH and its National Cancer Institute has been key to reducing the nation's cancer mortality rate, which the NCI says continues to decline.
- A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told Axios it "remains committed to advancing cancer research and other serious health conditions."
What they're saying: However, "[t]hese are the most difficult times that we have ever experienced," Steven Rosenberg from the National Cancer Institute told PBS when asked about layoffs and budget cuts.
What is the NIH, and how does it contribute to cancer research?
The NIH describes itself as the nation's medical research agency and as the largest public funder of biomedical and behavioral research in the world.
- It falls under the Department of Health and Human Services and is made up of 27 institutes and centers, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Flashback: The NCI was established through the National Cancer Act of 1937, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- Since President Nixon's declaration of a "war on cancer" in the early 1970s, research enjoyed increasing shares of federal biomedical research funding with strong bipartisan support.
- The Trump administration has upended the once-bipartisan consensus on funding cancer research.
Zoom in: The NCI is the government's principal agency for cancer research and training with a team of around 3,500, according to its website.
What has happened to the NIH under the Trump administration?
The potential impacts of NIH cuts are in flux and far-reaching.
- In February, the NIH said it would make dramatic cuts to the rate it pays for institutions' administration and overhead costs, saying it would cap the indirect cost rate on new and current grants at 15% of the total cost.
- That announcement sent shockwaves through the academic research world, with some institutions receiving reimbursements of more than 50%.
Friction point: Nearly two dozen states sued in response to the administration's overhead cost cap, alleging the billions of dollars in cuts could lead to layoffs, disrupt medical trials and close labs.
- A federal judge granted a temporary freeze then later made it permanent — teeing up the administration's appeal.
Beyond that, the NIH has cut funding for research and institutions that it says do not support the agency's mission, Axios' Carrie Shepherd reported, which includes some diversity, equity and inclusion studies.
- Some of the terminations follow the president's anti-DEI executive orders, while other grants addressed topics like vaccination and LGBTQ+ health, KFF Health News reported in April.
A Senate committee report released last week by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) documenting what he called "Trump's war on science" found the NIH has committed $2.7 billion less to researchers through March, compared to the same timeframe last year.
- The Democratic staff's analysis also reported a 31% decline in cancer research grant funding in the first three months of 2025, compared to the same timeframe in the previous year.
- "[T]he Trump administration's funding freeze did not just affect new research," the report read. "Renewals of existing grants also plummeted, disrupting studies that had already gone through peer review, some of which had already started to produce results."
Yes, but: The Department of Health and Human Services, which is overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., slammed the report as a "politically motivated distortion," and called Sanders' characterization of a "war on science" "unequivocally false."
What are doctors and researchers saying about the state of cancer research?
Jalal Baig, an oncologist and writer, said in a recent MSNBC op-ed that because "no two cancer centers" are alike in their "indirect" costs, "a uniform, fixed cap would disrupt or halt operations for many."
- While that plan is blocked by a judge's injunction, he said job cuts have had "palpable effects," pointing to reports of treatment delays for patients using an experimental therapy fighting gastrointestinal cancers.
Kimryn Rathmell, the former director of the National Cancer Institute, told the Associated Press that "discoveries are going to be delayed, if they ever happen."
The bottom line: "Countless Americans depend on the continued progress of cancer research to save lives and improve cancer care," Baig wrote. "And without it, many potential insights and treatments needed to propel oncology forward will never be realized."
Go deeper: Trump budget targets NIH, CDC for cuts
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from the Department of Health and Human Services.
