AACR Statement and Call to Action Regarding the Administration’s Recent Actions Affecting NIH and the American People
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is deeply concerned that the Administration’s recent actions are threatening the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its lifesaving mission to accelerate progress for patients with cancer and the hundreds of other diseases that afflict millions of Americans.
For decades, NIH has been the nation’s cornerstone of medical research, driving discoveries that have led to groundbreaking treatments, increased survival rates, and enhanced quality of life for patients. Last week’s abrupt and indiscriminate dismissals of dedicated public servants within NIH’s scientific workforce, the proposed major cuts to leading research institutions and cancer centers across our nation, and the ongoing disruptions of and restrictions on NIH’s efforts to work in partnership with the broader scientific community are jeopardizing progress and delaying innovations and treatments that are pivotal to improving patient outcomes and saving lives.
At a time when the scientific community is making unprecedented strides in cancer research – advancing precision medicine, immunotherapy, and early detection technologies – continued investments in biomedical discovery and research are more effective and promising than ever before. The weakening of NIH threatens to halt this momentum, delaying the development of new therapies and limiting access to some clinical trials. These trials, many of which are funded by NIH, are essential for ensuring that laboratory discoveries result in real-world benefits that offer patients everywhere the best hope for surviving the more than 200 diseases we know as cancer.
In 2024 alone, NIH’s two largest national clinical trial programs enabled more than 14,000 patients at hundreds of locations across the country to enroll in clinical studies. These and other cancer clinical trials drive scientific advancements and provide patients, including those with limited treatment options, access to novel lifesaving therapies. For example, new immune therapies that are based on scientific discovery have changed the landscape for patients with cancer, offering cures for those with advanced melanoma or for children with untreatable leukemia. These breakthroughs and other such advances have originated from scientists funded with NIH research grants. The pharmaceutical industry is a partner in this progress, but it relies on NIH-funded researchers to conduct discovery research that fuels the pipeline of new therapies. Any disruption in NIH funding risks delaying or even halting these vital clinical trials, thus diminishing the potential for lifesaving progress.
The Administration’s actions also threaten the 72 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers across the country that hold federal grants to coordinate research, conduct clinical trials, and deliver cancer care, screening, and prevention for the communities they serve. Congress and President Nixon worked collaboratively in 1971 to pass the National Cancer Act that established NCI cancer centers, and there are now more than 18 million cancer survivors in the U.S. Notably, the death rate from cancer has fallen 34% in the last 30 years as hundreds of new therapies and prevention strategies have been discovered and validated with NIH funding. The death rate from breast cancer has dropped 42% since 1989, and survival of children with cancer is now 85%, up from 58% in the mid-1970s at the time when NCI cancer centers were formed as an integral part of the National Cancer Program.
Already, in the last two weeks, cancer centers have struggled to fund new discovery projects in precision therapy, quality of life, and artificial intelligence for diseases such as prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and brain tumors. Innovative statewide cancer clinical trial programs, such as one in North Carolina, are now on hold. Further, there is serious concern about the disruption of research efforts, including some that are related to rural and frontier cancer health for the residents of Utah, Montana, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming.
The national economic impact of continued disruptions in the important work of NIH would be catastrophic. According to a report from United for Medical Research (UMR), research funding from NIH generated $92.89 billion in new economic activity nationwide last year — or $2.46 of economic activity for every $1 of research funding. NIH’s Role in Sustaining the U.S. Economy, published annually by UMR, also found that the $37.81 billion awarded to researchers in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in Fiscal Year 2023 supported 412,041 jobs.
Furthermore, sustained support for NIH is vital to maintaining the leadership of the U.S. in biomedical innovation. For decades, NIH-funded research has positioned the U.S. at the forefront of scientific discovery, which is fostering economic growth, technological advancement, and global competitiveness. Recent cutbacks in our nation’s commitment to NIH risk ceding U.S. leadership to other nations that are continuing to expand their investments in medical research. Additionally, the Administration’s disruptive policies are alarming many in the scientific community who fear that the current political climate is weakening the resolve of talented young researchers to remain in careers in academic science; clearly, this would further undermine our nation’s enduring position as the world leader in medical research. To remain at the vanguard of innovation, the U.S. Congress must reaffirm its commitment to robust, predictable funding for NIH and the broader scientific enterprise, including NCI, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
AACR Call to Action
AACR urges Congress to restore stability to NIH and its work on behalf of the American people by calling on the Administration to abandon its numerous executive orders and other proposals that would irreparably damage NIH, an agency that is widely revered as the world’s leading medical research enterprise. We also ask Congress to reaffirm its long and much appreciated history of steadfast and bipartisan support for medical research by ensuring that NIH has the resources necessary to advance our understanding of cancer and to continue to make progress in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer and other diseases.
Although there has been much progress against cancer, our battle is far from over, especially since more than 600,000 individuals will die of cancer in 2025. The ability to conduct groundbreaking research, accelerate the development of crucial discoveries, and offer hope to all those who are suffering from cancer and other diseases depends on an unwavering national commitment to the extraordinary lifesaving medical research that is supported by NIH.
Therefore, at this crucial time, AACR urges the American people to make their voices heard in support of NIH’s lifesaving medical research. The health and well-being of millions of Americans are at stake. To express your concerns about the Administration’s actions, please follow the link below to contact your respective members of Congress today.
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